KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A local father is bringing Knoxville to life through the pages of a new children’s book. Inspired by his daughter and his love for Knoxville, Wesley Bennett has written The Kitty of Knoxville.
Bennett grew up in Knoxville. After moving away for a few years, he came back to the area to raise his daughter Vivienne.
“I feel like being a parent kind of makes you more creative because you're constantly trying to, you know, play with toys or invent a game,” Bennett shared. “How am I going to fill up, you know, this all day? We read a lot of books. We played with a lot of stuffed animals.”
It was one of those stuffed animals that inspired Bennett’s main character.
“I used to call it the ‘kitty of Knoxville’ because it sounds like the city of Knoxville and I just thought it was clever,” Bennett explained.
Bennett said through reading books with his daughter, he noticed there were some that focused on different cities, like Good Night Memphis. After recognizing there weren’t many that highlighted the Scruffy City, Bennett decided he’d write one of his own.
“My daughter is kind of a big Dr. Seuss fan and so kind of wanted to have something with a bunch of rhymes,” Bennett detailed. “And then I kind of remembered the ‘kitty of Knoxville’ and kind of slowly, things kind of just started falling into place.”
Bennett wrote the book, highlighting staples including Market Square, Neyland Stadium, the Sunsphere and the Tennessee Theatre.
Then Bennett says he found illustrator Finn Dean, who lives in England, to make the story come to life.
“I just knew that if I was going to do this book, the illustrations had to be good,” Bennett shared. “I thought it kind of what wasn't going to be worth doing if the illustrations weren't top-notch.”
Today the book is available in local shops throughout the area, including: Union Ave Books, Ijams Nature Center, Bliss, Knoxville Visitors Center and Nothing Too Fancy.
“I just want kids to realize that, you know, Knoxville is a special place and just that…if you have an idea, you can do this too.”
To learn more, you can visit KittyOfKnoxville.com.