"That night, Jack went outside and gazed at the big red planet Mars and thought to himself, ‘What if we went to Mars?'"

"Mars?" Pop-Pop asked in disbelief. "How about instead of Mars, we go...to the moon on my new rocket ship invention?!"

This passage from Dave White Jr.'s recently published children's fiction book, "Jack and Pop-Pop's Spacetacular Journey," sets the stage for the Jack and Pop-Pop story and imaginative adventure. A University of Nevada, Reno student majoring in special education in the College of Education, White published his children's book, which has shipped to buyers across the nation and in Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Australia.

Basing the characters Jack and Pop-Pop on himself and his own grandfather, White wrote this story to inspire kids to continue to dream.

"I wanted to write something that shows kids that anything is possible," White said. "I wanted to inspire kids to dream big, big dreams."

Growing up with cerebral palsy, White learned that anything is possible and he wants to spread that message to children with his book.

White's inspiration for the book came from Rachel Salas, an assistant professor of literacy at the University from whom he took a children's literature course during the fall 2014 semester.

"She sparked something in me and I really took it to heart," White said. "And then for my final project in that class, I wrote ‘Jack and Pop-Pop's Spacetacular Journey.'"
After a reconstructive foot surgery the previous spring, White had time to illustrate his own book as well. Using colored pencils and paint, he hand-illustrated each of the 24 colorful pages of his book. This, he said, allowed him to flex his art skills from his cartooning days in middle school.

"Drawing these, I felt like I was channeling my eight-year-old self," White said. "This entire process, I have just felt like a giant kid."

After final edits to both the story and hand-drawn illustrations, White began a Kickstarter campaign in July that helped raise more than $3,000 to publish the book through Paul Baker Printing. He also created merchandise for the book including tie-dyed bandanas and T-shirts.

White is working on the sequel to "Jack and Pop-Pop's Spacetacular Journey" in addition to taking courses toward his degree. He is also a coordinator for the Eye to Eye mentoring program, a national network of youth mentoring programs that create art-based projects for children with learning disabilities. White donates 10 percent of the profits from his book to the Nevada chapter of Eye to Eye.

After graduation, which he tentatively plans for fall 2018, White hopes to make writing children's books his career so he can spread the message to all children to "dream big, big dreams."

To purchase a copy of "Jack and Pop-Pop's Spacetacular Journey," a T-shirt or bandana, visit White's online shop.