AUBURN — W. Cooper Dunn of Auburn is this year’s winner of the annual Auburn Book Project.

Dunn, a seventh-grader at Auburn Middle School, wrote and illustrated “Danger off the Coast” while participating in an enrichment activity at East Auburn School last year.

He got the idea from his book from a letter written by a lighthouse keeper to a schoolgirl in 1919.

“I couldn’t believe that a German submarine could make it all the way across the ocean back in 1917,” he said. “I added the character of Salty because I really like cats. I thought it would be interesting to tell the story from the perspective of an island cat.”

Inspired by the keeper’s letter, Dunn created his watercolored illustrations with great detail to depict life on an island off the coast of Maine in the early 1900s. The book explores how a cat and his relationship with a lighthouse keeper save the day.

Dunn recently attended a City Council meeting to present a signed copy of his book to Auburn’s Mayor Jonathan LaBonte, who honored Dunn with a key to the city.

Dunn will be honored at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, in the library’s Maggie Trafton Room.

Copies of Cooper’s book will be available for sale, and he will sign books after the awards presentations. His book will also be circulated in all Auburn elementary school libraries, as well as the Auburn Public Library.

The public is invited to meet him and the nine finalists as they share their books and their experiences as writers and illustrators. Others are Emma Dionne, Kora Martel, Simon Hall, Lucy DeRoche, Ian Lathrop, Sawyer Doherty, Lily Therrien, Paige Morgan and Lillybeth Randall.