As a boy growing up in Indiana, Jack Zell would go to his grandfather's farm and watch groundhogs, hoping to ascertain whether or not it was going to be a harsh winter. On Feb. 2, if the groundhog saw its shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter; if it did not, spring would soon come.

As a teenager, he watched the traditional Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pa., on TV. People crowded around that year's Punxsutawney Phil and, as always, a man in a black top hat, purporting to know groundhog-speak, lifted up the animal after it came out of its burrow and announced its prediction.

"I thought it was a little rude," said Zell, now 60. "Looking at it from the groundhog's point of view, I thought whether other people weren't trying to influence him, too."

Last year, Zell finally found a chance to highlight the groundhog's weather-predicting celebrity and its hurdles. He started his own small publishing company in Roanoke, where he lives, and decided to publish and distribute a children's songbook titled "Punxsutawney Groundhog Eve." He even got a license to use the town's groundhog as his main character.

Today, he'll perform it in Punxsutawney, at the country's biggest and oldest Groundhog Day celebration, dating to 1886.

"It just fit right in," said Michele Neal, Punxsutawney's Groundhog Day celebration coordinator. She received Zell's manuscript in December. "Because we really enjoyed the story, we allowed him to use Punxsutawney Phil rather than just a groundhog."

Phil is the only groundhog that's supposed to have winter-prediction powers, according to groundhog.org, the official Web site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. This year, Punxsutawney, population 15,000, is expecting 20,000 people to attend its Groundhog Day celebration, featuring Zell and other performers and attractions.

Zell will perform at the festival with children from the town's West End Elementary School. For the compact disc that comes with his Punxsutawney Phil story, he sings with fifth-graders from Roanoke's Raleigh Court Elementary School.

"The kids really enjoyed it," said Carolyn Cox, Raleigh Court Elementary's music teacher. "They got to go to a recording studio. They got to go through that process -- it's not easy to record a CD. They gained great appreciation for the writing process, for singing together."

The book comprises the verses of the seven-minute country-style song. Zell and six children sing about various townspeople who bribe Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Eve. They want him to turn the weather in a way that will benefit their businesses or professions.

Phil's wife warns him that people will say anything, " 'cause some folks love the winter, and some can't wait 'til spring."

The songbook will be sold at the Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney and on groundhog.org, said organizer Neal. It will soon be available, for $10, at Fret Mill Music in Salem, Zell said.

Zell, a former IBM consultant and grandfather of four, has written four children's songbooks so far. Though he spent most of his life as a businessman, he never forgot a love for music he acquired as a child. Now, his greatest passion is "teaching kids to sing and love music," he writes in the book.

But another strong interest of his, of course, is Groundhog Day.

"I think it's kind of neat," Zell said. "It's a neat idea. The things that groups of people believe in fascinate me."