MADISON, Wis.— A young Madison boy is now a published author, thanks to all the help from his family. 

Tikeh Tazeh is the second of four children. The 12-year-old and his family live in New Glarus. 

He and his older brother love soccer. Their parents are from Cameroon, where soccer is the national pastime. Of course, it’s called football there. 

Tikeh hasn’t been able to play with his team for almost a year now because of the pandemic. 

“It’s one of the things I miss the most,” he said. 

He dove into reading instead, to pass the time. He says that soccer and reading two large parts of his life. But as his book-count picked up, he started to realize something. 

“There's not that many soccer fiction novels at my level. And I was kind of disappointed, but then thought, 'You know, I love soccer. And I love reading. So why don't I write one at this level?'” 

Tikeh started writing right away. Within just a few months, he had finished his novel, titled “Hat Trick”. 

“My book is about a 12-year-old boy like me, who moves with his family to Michigan. And he has to go through this whole process of moving to a new place, moving to a new school, new teachers, new soccer team.” 

Then began the editing and publishing process. Editing was helmed by Tikeh's dad and his older brother Kiehmi, who affectionately gets the title of editor of the book. 

His mom Yvonne was the one exploring how to get it published. Eventually, they decided to publish it themselves. 

“We started with Google, good old Google,” Yvonne laughed, with a big smile behind her mask. “The IASB, the Library of Congress… the copyright… It’s a whole process.” 

With help from nearly the whole family, “Hat Trick” was published. It’s now sold on Amazon, with an average rating of 4.9 stars. There are glowing reviews from people who were shocked it was written by someone so young. 

The New Glarus library put it on their shelves right away. Then, the Madison Public Library joined suit. They even put on a virtual celebration for Tikeh, complete with appearances from Forward Madison soccer club and the Wisconsin Book Festival as a surprise to Tikeh and Kiehmi. 

They topped it off by sending soccer gear to the brothers. 

“The Madison Public Library, they took it and ran with it,” Yvonne said. 

She was so moved by everything they did for her family, that she nominated the library for a grant. 

Now, Tikeh is working on the sequel. This time, his publishing team at home knows exactly what to do and how to help. 

Yvonne said it’s touching to see her kids working together. 

“When you take the time to kind of go through that process, even if it's just for one book, there's just good memories,” Yvonne said.  

And those memories are resonating with her kids. There’s one big lesson Tikeh wants readers to take away from the book. 

“It’s not all about being the best player on the team. It's about being the best friend and being the best person after that,” he said. 

Tikeh's dream is to one day be published by Random House. 

His sequel should be out sometime this year.