LELAND — Years spent answering residents’ questions about town government taught former Leland council member Bill McHugh that many people do not understand the level of government closest to them.
Now, McHugh is trying to close that knowledge gap before it begins.
His new children’s book, “The ABCs of Local Government,” uses the alphabet to introduce young readers to 26 concepts related to local government. For example, “A” is for administration, “B” is for budget and “Z” is for zoning.
The idea developed from two parts of McHugh’s life: his experience in public office and the bedtime stories he read to his daughter.
Early in his council career, McHugh said he realized much of his interaction with residents involved explaining how the government worked. People would sometimes approach him about a concern they believed was the town’s responsibility to address, only to learn it was handled by Brunswick County or the state.
He began focusing more of his work on public education, encouraging the town to hold question-and-answer-style meetings and produce videos explaining local issues and government processes.
At home, meanwhile, his daughter had developed an interest in alphabet books.
“I read my daughter a bedtime story every night, so I’ve read a great deal of children’s books over the past couple of years,” McHugh said. “She was big into these ABC books as a baby, and it occurred to me that that could be a really good format for a children’s book.”
Over roughly two years, McHugh began matching each letter with an element of municipal government. After his council term ended in December 2025, he had more time to finish the manuscript, find an illustrator and work through the publishing process.
The alphabet format allowed him to introduce a wide range of ideas without overwhelming young readers. The book is aimed at kids between 4 and 8 years of age.
“We don’t need to spend a lot of time telling 4- and 8-year-olds what a town manager does,” he said. “But they need to know that they exist.”
The book explains that a town hall is where local meetings take place, budgets determine how a town pays for its priorities and public works departments maintain streets. It also introduces the roles of police officers, firefighters, planners and other municipal employees.
McHugh said the goal is not to provide children with a comprehensive lesson in public administration. Instead, he wants to “plant a seed” and encourage questions between children and the adults in their lives.
A child who enjoys building with LEGOs, for example, might become curious about planning and zoning — and eventually discover an interest in urban planning.
“You never know,” McHugh said. “They might ask questions like, ‘Mom and Dad, what does planning mean? What does zoning mean?’”
McHugh said some letters were easier to assign than others. McHugh first made sure the book covered public safety, public works, administration, planning and parks. He then reviewed the alphabet for gaps, repeated ideas or subjects that could be rearranged.
“G” became green space, allowing parks to be included. “P” was reserved for public works, leaving “L” available for law enforcement.
The final letter introduces zoning by explaining the distinction between places where people live and places where businesses operate. McHugh hopes ending the book with one of local government’s most consequential — and frequently misunderstood — responsibilities will encourage further discussion.
“No kid knows what zoning is whose parents don’t work in local government,” he said. “That’s going to start that conversation.”
Condensing complicated subjects into a sentence or two proved to be one of the project’s greatest challenges.
McHugh said he could now write an encyclopedia about local government, but a children’s book required him to resist being verbose. He began treating the manuscript less like a traditional nonfiction book and more like a poem, using brief phrases to carry readers from A to Z.
Although the book is intended for children, its lessons may also be useful to adults.
McHugh became interested in politics while watching the 1992 presidential debates between Bill Clinton, George Bush and Ross Perot with his father as a second-grader. Despite following politics from a young age, he said he paid relatively little attention to local government until he became a homeowner.
That experience showed him how easily municipal government can be overlooked, even by people who consider themselves politically informed.
Americans are surrounded by news about presidents, governors and members of Congress, McHugh said, while many residents cannot name their town council representatives. During his time in office, some people he encountered regularly did not know he served on Leland Town Council.
Local government often attracts attention only when a particular problem emerges, he added. Residents may become focused on lowering taxes, improving policing, building a park or stopping a development rather than considering how individual decisions fit into a community’s long-term direction.
That tendency is especially significant in rapidly growing areas such as Leland and Brunswick County. Brunswick County is the fastest growing county in the state of North Carolina, with resident opposition to development mounting in recent years.
“Citizens tend to get engaged with local government when they’re unhappy — and only when they’re unhappy,” McHugh said.
Residents can accomplish more by becoming involved before a controversy emerges, he said, and by helping local officials plan for the community’s future rather than responding only to immediate disputes.
“In an area like Leland and Brunswick County that’s growing so fast, we’ve got to be future-focused,” he said. “We’ve only got one opportunity to get this right, because once it’s all filled in and built, it’s too late.”
McHugh also hopes early exposure to local government will eventually encourage greater participation in municipal elections. He pointed to turnout of approximately 21% in the 2025 Leland Municipal Election as evidence of the disconnect between the importance of local decisions and the attention they receive.
“Just being aware that it matters as a child is going to be enough to create that voter in the future,” he said.
Even in Leland, which McHugh described as having an intelligent and highly educated population, his council experience revealed persistent misunderstandings. New residents sometimes arrived with expectations based on how governments operated in other states, while others were learning about municipal processes only when an issue directly affected them.
“At the local government level, it seems [civic education] is almost nonexistent,” he said. “Everybody’s just kind of learning as they go, and that’s a precarious position to be in when the work we’re doing is so important.”
“The ABCs of Local Government” reached No. 1 in Amazon’s children’s citizenship books category when it debuted on the 15th of July 2026 and was listed as the category’s top new release. The book is available online through Amazon, Walmart and Books-A-Million.
For McHugh, the early response suggests there is an audience for a subject rarely addressed in children’s publishing — and an appetite for understanding how communities work.
“Local government affects our daily lives in so many ways,” he said, “but it is often the level of government people know the least about.”
When asked about his future plans, whether that includes a return to politics or additional books, McHugh answered “everything is on the table.” He said he is determined to continue serving his community and working to make the world a better place.
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