AUGUSTA, Ga ()- This week, the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning celebrates its 15th annual “Georgia Pre-K Week,” a program that highlights the importance of early learning.

NewsChannel 6’s Kim Vickers sat down with the co-authors of this year’s featured book to talk about it.

“A few years ago, I got a call from Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning informing me about their pre-K program and their pre-K program requiring a Georgia author to write a book. And I was very privileged to get that opportunity to be an author for one of the books,” explained Malcolm Mitchell.

Malcolm Mitchell, a former Georgia Bulldog and New England Patriot and children’s book author, recently joined forces with another children’s author, musician and member of the Zac Brown Band, Coy Bowles. Together they wrote “Every Amazing Story: A Writing Adventure with Coy and Malcolm.”

“And at the teacher appreciation event, they informed me that before I did the books for Georgia Pre-K, Coy had done a few books for Georgia Pre-K and that we should collaborate,” Mitchell said.

Bowles and Mitchell agreed and soon started working together to try to come up with a concept for the book.

“We both looked at each other and we said, ‘What was the one thing we have in common other than being from Georgia?’ You know, and we write we both write books and we were like, ‘Well, why don’t we write a book about how to write a book?’ And that’s what this book is about,” Bowles explained.

Both men told us they are passionate about children’s literacy and they want to be involved in fostering a love of reading in Georgia’s kids.

“To be completely honest, at some point I learned too much about what’s going on with kids in our country and specifically in our state, to not be a part of the positive. And so I’ve just been dedicated to that mission ever since,” said Bowles.

During Georgia Pre-K Week, every child in the state’s Pre-K program will get a free copy of Bowles’s and Mitchell’s new book.

They said the process was fun and they enjoyed working together and hope to do it again soon.

“It was a great adventure, too. We got to really know each other and become good friends and all the things that you would hope that would happen, actually happened. You know, we’re on a mission now to actually hang out in real life. Every time we talk, we’re like, okay, so when are we going to really hang out and be friends?” Bowles said.

While the book isn’t available to the public yet, soon it will be available on Bowles and Mitchell’s websites and Amazon, so keep an eye out.

Coy Bowles Website

Malcolm Mitchell Website

Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning Website