OXFORD — A young Norway author has had her first book signing.

Marrae Kimball, a sixth-grade student at Guy E. Rowe Elementary School, was recently invited to the Oxford Elementary School for her first book-signing event.

“The Oxford Elementary School’s PTA recently invited Marrae to their book fair to do a book signing with her new book, ‘Guaranteed Success for Grade School; 50 Easy Things You Can Do Today!'” said her mother, Melissa Eshleman. “It was Marrae’s very first book-signing and she had a lot of fun meeting people and talking about her book.”

The 11-year-old decided she would try to help younger students by putting together ideas that would make the grade-school experience easier. She and her mom brainstormed ideas. A year later, with the help of family, friends and teachers, the book was written, edited, designed and published by Melissa and her husband, Ed Eshleman. The book is available through Books N Things on Main Street in Norway and at www.barnesandnoble.com and www.amazon.com.

This summer Kimball met with U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe during a downtown tour of Norway and gave her a copy of the book after she had received a congratulatory letter from the senator earlier in the year. Kimball also gave a signed copy of her book to Snowe in hopes of getting it to President Barack Obama.

“We’re still waiting for a reply from President Obama and I feel as if it will come. I just don’t know when,” Melissa Eshleman said. Meanwhile, her daughter has started to e-mail Ellen DeGeneres who has been talking lately about bullying, a subject that Kimball covers in her book.

ldixon@sunjournal.