Stephen King is known by many titles: ‘The Master of Horror’, ‘Ringleader of Nightmares’ and many more. But recent news affirms that he is quite the youth literary advocate too!

This is not a revelation that gives you the heebie-jeebies – as his stories usually succeed in doing – but it’s true. The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the non-profit organization founded by King and his wife to support community projects in Maine, is funding the publication of a manuscript written by group of young students enrolled in the Farwell Elementary School’s Author Studies Program.

The students initially planned to fund their project through a Kickstarter campaign, but when King’s foundation caught wind of it, they stepped in to cover the $6,500 cost of publishing the 290-page manuscript.

Seventh-grader Ella Leo rather succinctly told WMTW News 8 Portland: “It was, like, mind-blowing.”

The budding writers studied Gary Savage’s 2016 book, Fletcher McKenzie and the Passage to Whole, and then adapted the text to mirror their experiences during the pandemic. Savage’s story follows a teenage boy from Western Maine, who attempts to find his missing mother and discover why his father fell into a coma.

Principal Amanda Winslow told the Associated Press that she is “proud of the students and their accomplishments,” and thankful to Savage, who advised the students, and school librarian Kathy Martin as well.

To the delight of his loyal following, King will publish a new crime novel titled Later, on March 2nd.

(Article extracted from The Literary Hub with revisions to the headline and text by Sakshi Selvanathan)