A sweet tale of a pastry finding his place in life, ninth grader Jenny Ries’ children’s book “The Little Macaron” provides a unique spin on individuality.

The story follows a macaron, a type of French cookie, as he discovers who he truly is.

“It’s about a macaron who lives in the world of sugar cookies. That’s supposed to be a metaphor for somebody who is different, living in a world where everyone else is similar and they have some quality that [others] don’t have,” Ries said.

Ries originally wrote the book in her eighth grade English class.

“In English last year, we were always supposed to be pushing our limits, and I thought it would push my limits to write a story in a children’s book type voice because I feel like I’m not the best at that. It was supposed to be an allegory about individuality, but my English teacher last year, Ms. Clark, thought it sounded like a children’s book. So we published it as [one],” Ries said.

Her draft was sent to 3-2-1 Press, a publishing press for young authors. It was accepted, so during the summer, Ries worked on revising and polishing her story.

Ries hopes that readers will learn to embrace their differences and accept themselves.

“I think that everyone can identify with feeling like they are different than other people, and sometimes that can be portrayed as a bad thing, but that can actually be a really special thing,” Ries said.

“At the end, the cookie finally finds people who he’s more similar to but he realizes that maybe being different was better than finding a group of people who you can relate to. It’s better to be your own self than to be part of a group. You need to be able to exist individually,” Ries said.

As for students who would also be interested in publishing their own story, Ries has an encouraging message.

“I would definitely say go for it. It was a really good experience,” Ries said.