Senior education major and recently published author Eric Cagle read his book “A-B-C Homophones” aloud to a group of Kilby Elementary students Wednesday morning at Kilby Laboratory School.

The book, published in August, teaches children about words with the same sound and different meanings.

Cagle said a class with Professor of Elementary Education Linda Armstrong and his own father’s published trilogy inspired him to publish his first book.

“It was very time consuming, but it was definitely worth it,” Cagle said.

The book took about a day to write, but all of the illustrations took about two hours each, Cagle said.

Cagle said giving children someone to look up to drew him to teaching.

“There (are) too many children in this world today that grow up without any kind of male role model,” Cagle said. “The research shows that those children tend to have a harder time in learning, or a harder time in life in general, so I thought that it would be a great way for me to be that role model in their life.”

Cagle does well with engaging students in the classroom, said Kilby second grade teacher Mandy Wicks.

“He’s always very excited and interested in whatever it is that he’s teaching, and (he) tries to make everything relevant to the real world,” Wicks said.

Cagle’s book helps teach language arts in the classroom, said Junior Amanda Dumont.

“It’s a fun way to teach them about homophones,” Dumont said.

Both “A-B-C Homophones” and the corresponding coloring book are available for purchase on Amazon.