"He Said Yes," a new picture book, celebrates the life of Father Mychal Judge, the first recorded casualty of Sept. 11, 2001.

The title refers to the Catholic priest's acceptance of a vocation in the Franciscan religious order and to his final selfless act as a chaplain ministering to New York City Fire Department rescuers inside the crumbling World Trade Center.

But the phrase also crops up repeatedly as author Kelly Ann Lynch, a Landisville mother of four, explains how an idea that struck her at Mass one day became a 32-page hardcover reality six years after the tragedy.

"He said yes," "They said yes" and "She said yes," Lynch recalls, referring to book illustrator M. Scott Oatman, publisher Paulist Press and its children's books editor.

Even posthumously, it seems, the priest's positive spirit influenced those capable of extending his message.

"We're proof he didn't die that day," Lynch says.

• Father Mychal Judge was a friend of Lynch's family when she was growing up in New Jersey. He stood by her and blessed her baby, Shannon Hickey, who underwent a liver transplant.

The priest's untimely death was a personal blow to the family. In early 2002, 11-year-old Shannon decided to honor his memory by starting a charity for the homeless called Mychal's Message.

Shannon needed a logo for the brochure, so Lynch asked her friend Shelly at work at a Lancaster law firm if her husband, a graphic artist, could help.

That's the first time Oatman, who now lives in Ocean City, Md., said yes. And he again answered in the affirmative that fall, when Lynch asked him to illustrate the book she was writing about the priest.

"I didn't even hesitate," said Oatman, who said he'd been considering branching out into children's books for years.

He found the book's subject challenging, though. He knew the art "couldn't be cute or cartoony," he said

"Here was a man, and we knew of him because he died," Oatman said. "How is that a children's book?" he asked, noting that few children's books tackle the grim topics of death and terrorism.

Lynch solved the dilemma by focusing on Father Mychal's life, making him a positive example to children.

Though he is not a Catholic, having been raised in First Reformed Church here, Oatman said he was drawn to Father Mychal and wanted to help tell his story.

"He preached to whomever needed preaching, and his message was interdenominational," Oatman said, mentioning the priest's work on a peace mission to Ireland, on a church bread line and with AIDS patients, all featured in the book.

• Originally, Lynch and Oatman thought they'd have to raise money to self-publish their book. Then Lynch sent a draft to the priest at Father Mychal's former church who encouraged her to seek a commercial publisher.

In the normal order of publishing, an author submits a story idea, and the publisher who accepts it assigns it to an illustrator. Many times the author and illustrator are not even in communication.

In this case, Lynch and Oatman had already worked together to complete the book, which included a dozen richly detailed watercolors Oatman painted from photographs, family members posing as models, and Lynch's descriptions.

He even included small, hidden images in each painting for the observant child to discover, such as a tau cross in the library scene, a Christian fish symbol on a patient's bathrobe.

As Oatman remembers, the Paulist Press editor's initial reaction to his art was, "Fantastic! Beautiful! That being said .... "

Having been a commercial artist for 20 years at that point, Oatman knew changes were often necessary to please clients. He was willing to put in the extra work the editor saw as necessary to represent the story accurately to children.

He performed a "sex change operation" on one of the men in a scene depicting Father Mychal ministering to addicts, for example. If children didn't see women, they might get the impression that addiction was a problem for men only, the editor reasoned.

Oatman had a good feeling about the book when his 8-year-old son, Alex, said he wished he could have met Father Mychal.

Oatman said he plans to get his original paintings into the hands of the the Ground Zero memorial committee and Father Mychal's order, which might use them to generate funds to carry on his work.

Some book proceeds also will go to support Mychal's Message.

A book-release party is set for Friday, Sept. 7, at Tir na nOg, an Irish pub at Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street in New York City. Lynch and Oatman begin signing at 7 p.m. They will also sign the book, priced at $12.95, in Lancaster at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, and at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, at Borders. The book may also be ordered at www.mychalsmessage.org.