BRUNSWICK – Although Maine humorist Tim Sample has been making folks laugh for more than a quarter of a century, one of his one-liners has just been retired. “For years, I’ve been saying that I’m the only celebrity in America who is not writing or illustrating a children’s book,” quips Sample. “As of May 9th, 2005, that line is officially obsolete.”

On that date, the Maine Humor Co., Sample’s publishing company in Brunswick, published its first children’s book. The book, a chaptered, juvenile novel called “The Summer with Jay” was illustrated by Sample, who has illustrated nearly a dozen books for various publishers.

It’s the story of a Maine boy growing up along the Maine coast. If some aspects of the story, like the fact that the main character Jason Jackson is the son of a Maine shipbuilder, seem similar to Sample’s Maine boyhood, that’s not a coincidence.

After all, the author of “The Summer with Jay” is Maine native and longtime Boothbay Harbor resident Leah Sample. Not only was she born in Blue Hill and spent her childhood in nearby Brooklin, but she’s also Tim Sample’s mother.

This is her first book. Although it’s clearly a work of fiction, it is influenced by the author’s experiences raising Tim and his siblings in a seaside Maine village.

Leah Sample attended Eastern State Normal School in Castine. In 1988, she earned a degree in English from the University of Southern Maine. She has taught elementary school in Maine and South Carolina, and continues teaching, tutoring and reading aloud to interested groups.

She says the publication of her first book “is a fulfillment of my lifelong desire to write a book which adults would enjoy reading to children.”

Numerous bookstore appearances and autograph parties featuring both author Leah Sample and illustrator/publisher Tim Sample are planned throughout Maine in the coming months. Times, locations and dates for these appearances will be listed at www.timsample.com. Tim Sample may be contacted at: The Maine Humor Co., P.O. Box 144, Bath, ME 04530, or by calling (207) 443-9903.