From Sixth Grade to Amazon: Meet 11 Year Old Temple Author Mack Lee Thomas

Bonham Middle School has a celebrity in its midst!

Author Mack Lee Thomas

While many 11-year-olds are focused on video games, Bonham Middle School sixth grader Mack Lee Thomas is focused on putting pen to paper...or fingers to keyboard. Mack's love of writing has made him one of the youngest authors with a book on Amazon. It all started with a poem.

“A Problem Here?”

The Temple Independent School District tells Fox 44 that Mack submitted his poem “A Problem Here” to the district’s “Voices of Temple” writing contest and was one of two winners. He was encouraged to publish the poem.

The Poem was Inspired by A Real-Life Experience

According to Fox 44, Mack was inspired to write the poem following a real-life incident with a wasp that sent him to the emergency room with anaphylactic shock. Mack said the incident made him scared to go outside when he returned to school. Writing the poem helped him face his fear as well as the problems that could arise in life if fear goes unchecked. Mack says he hopes others will be inspired by the poem and encouraged to work through their anxiety.

From Poem to Story

Mack said that it was his mother’s idea to lengthen the poem into a story. His mother, Krystal Thomas, is an eighth grade math teacher at Bonham. She told Fox 44, “I am excited to see a kid his age that is interested in writing and reading and is expressive of his emotions. I want to do anything I can to help him get that out there for others to read his work. It is encouraging and inspiring that he did this all on his own and is interested in literary arts.” You can a copy of “A Problem Here?” by clicking this Amazon link.