A DALE architect’s unusual discovery during a litter pick along the banks of the River Tees has resulted in the publication of a children’s book.
The idea for putting pen to paper began when George Stastny discovered a toy T-Rex dinosaur while on a walk near his Whorlton home with wife Mary.
He said: “We were just litter picking. Someone had collected all this firewood in a pile and we found this toy T-Rex on top of it. Mary found a second one a few metres away.”
Because the first dinosaur seemed to be perched on top of a nest, he named it Mother T-Bun and the other he named Not a T-Rex.
From this he thought he would write a short story.
He said: “I wrote one page for my grandchildren and sent it to them by email. They said ‘Grandad, what happened next’.”
He continued to create the story resulting in an initial booklet illustrated with photographs of the toys posed in different settings.
Mr Stastny said: “It has been great fun looking for locations. We found so many new places.”
Along with sending it to his five grandchildren aged between nine and 12, he also shared it with friends and neighbours in the village.
This resulted in people donating toys to be included in the stories alongside those bought by Mr Stastny and his wife.
He said: “Someone found a duck by the river and said you have to put it in.”
Mrs Stastny added: “There were so many it looked like Jurassic Park – it was crazy”
The story centres around a group of dinosaurs which were washed down the River Tees from the upper dale during a flood.
Along with the many dinosaurs, the book also features other creatures that can be found along the River Tees including otters, ducks and herons and have clever names such as T-Otter (Totter), T-Witch (Twitch) and T-Cake.
Demand for the stories grew to the extent that he wrote a second and third tale.
These have now been combined into one which Mr Stastny will have printed in the coming weeks and plans to sell at various shops in the dale.
Mr Stastny said: “It became quite educational in the end with climate change and vegetarians against meat eaters.”
The story came together during the full three months of the lockdown.
Mr Stastny said: “It was quite a godsend.”
