Today I welcome Alan Cumyn to Best Dog Books, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a dog story for kids or young adults. Alan is here to talk about North to Benjamin which is a middle grade novel published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers for kids aged 10-14.

Best Dog Books: Who is your key dog character(s) and what kind of dog is he/she?

Benjamin is an elderly Newfoundland dog who lives in Dawson City, Yukon. He drools, he farts, he likes to be warm and comfortable, and he has a dry sense of humor about being dragged out in the cold for walks and such. He sees humans pretty much as they are, and that’s why he likes the new kid in town, Edgar, so much. For all his hiding, Edgar is a good soul, and he and Benjamin bond quickly.

Best Dog Books: Tell us about your story.

Young Edgar is dragged north by his unhappy mother, who is fleeing the big city after troubles with her latest man. Edgar is like a house cat who knows humans all too well. For sure, knowing his mother, going so far away to a place like Dawson City will probably will end in disaster. But Edgar will get to look after Benjamin, the dog who comes with the house he and his mother will be living in for a couple of months. Edgar would like nothing better than to spend time with the lovable giant Benjamin, and a new friend, Caroline. But trouble follows Edgar’s mother wherever she goes. Why in the world would she be attracted to Caroline’s father, who already has a perfectly fine girlfriend? Knowing that trouble is coming, Edgar becomes so anxious he stops being able to speak… except with Benjamin, who is in some ways no help at all, and in other ways, all the help Edgar needs.

Best Dog Books: What inspired you to write this story?

In the spring of 2014 I got the chance of a lifetime to spend three months in Dawson City, in Canada’s far north. I had read about Dawson ever since I was a child, especially in the books of Jack London and the poems of Robert W. Service. Dawson was home to a gold rush in 1898 that, for a few years, made it a thriving city in the middle of wilderness. Dawson is still a home to gold miners, artists, adventurers, and a strong First Nations community. Two rivers meet there, the Klondike and the Yukon, and the surrounding hills are breathtaking. Of course I started to think about setting a story there. I had a perfect place. But who was the story about?

When I got back home to Ottawa, Edgar spoke up, at least in my imagination. And I knew that he needed a friend who wasn’t human. Dawson is full of dogs, some of the most beautiful and best behaved I’ve ever seen. But it was on an earlier trip, to Anchorage, Alaska, when I met the model for Benjamin, a Great Pyrenees named Baird, whose owner is a dear friend. Sometimes threads of a story can be in the back of a writer’s mind for a long time before suddenly they all come together.

Best Dog Books: What was the biggest challenge in writing the book?

When Edgar loses his voice and finds the only thing he can do is bark, I wanted him to become as much like a dog, from the inside, as possible (while still remaining a boy.) Dogs have a terrific sense of smell compared to humans, and I had to work hard to imagine what it would be like to sense the world primarily through your nose. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that sniffing a familiar marking post would be like reading a social media feed for a dog: who had been there, how long ago, what did they have for dinner, who have they been running around with? I think dogs have a fascinating life, and it was a pleasure to try to think like one while writing the story.

Best Dog Books: What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it about a dog? If so, what can you tell us about it?

I have a new manuscript with plenty of animals but, strangely, no dogs (!) I do like animals as characters. It seems to me we humans have to do a better job of making sure there is room and safety for all of us on this fragile planet.

I do have an earlier book that features a rambunctious black dog, Sylvester. It’s called After Sylvia and it’s the second in my Owen Skye middle grade series, which also includes The Secret Life of Owen Skye and Dear Sylvia.

Best Dog Books: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

I grew up with dogs, and the very first story I wrote, which won a prize, was about our beautiful collie, Lady, who was very sick with cancer near the end of her life. The prize was from the Humane Society of Ottawa, and our school principal gathered the entire student body so that he could hand out a trophy that felt bigger than me, and that had all the names of previous winners going back many years. I was so nervous I thought my knees would give out. It took me a long time after that to write another story – why bother, unless someone was going to give me a big trophy? The story about Lady had come out of my concern for her suffering, and later stories came out of other feelings I wanted to express, other things I needed to say. After a while I got over the disappointment of not getting a big trophy every time I wrote something down. But that certainly was an exciting start!

Best Dog Books: Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? Why?

There is a special place in my heart for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I was not a boy genius reader when I was young. I remember struggling with words and having a hard time working my way through early books. And, the opening of The Wind in the Willows seemed even more difficult than most. But once Rat and Mole and Badger meet up with the amazing Mr. Toad, who loves motor cars in a bizarre and crazy way, then the story became a movie in my head. I could see everyone, I laughed out loud at Toad’s ridiculous adventures. Reading stopped being work and somehow became exciting instead!

Best Dog Books: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Write for yourself first. Write the poem or the story or the book you desperately want and need to read right now. Enjoy every moment. Writing, like any kind of creation, is its own best reward.

If you’d like to learn more about Alan Cumyn you can check out the author’s website. You can also find book reviews from Kirkus Book Reviews, and Quill & Quire.

See also: Alan Cumyn on the writing of North to Benjamin.

And: Alan Cumyn reading from North to Benjamin.

Thank you Alan for joining us at Best Dog Books for kids. We loved NORTH TO BENJAMIN!

For other great books about dogs, check out 101 Best Dog Books for Kids.

For published authors and unpublished authors, check out our writing contests.

Today I welcome Bobbie Pyron to Best Dog Books, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a canine story for kids or young adults. Bobbie Pyron is here to talk about STAY which is a middle grade novel published by Katherine Tegen Books/Harpercollins for kids aged 10 and up.

Best Dog Books: Who is your key dog character(s) and what kind of dog is he/she?

Baby is a little mixed breed terrier dog who looks an awful lot like ToTo. He lives with his person, Jewell, in a city park.

Best Dog Books: What is your story about?

STAY is the intertwined stories of Baby and Jewell, and 11-year-old Piper and her family. All have found themselves experiencing homelessness and are trying to make sense of their lives. When Baby and Jewel are separated, Piper and her new friends do all that they can to help reunite the “pack of two.”

Best Dog Books: What inspired you to write this story?

Several years ago, my husband and I were stopped at a red light at a large intersection. At that intersection was an older woman holding a sign asking for help. It was a cold spring day but she had on a thin, faded dress. She looked so desperate! Next to her sat a little dog who looked just like ToTo from the Wizard of Oz. He looked calm as toast and perfectly content. I kept thinking about that little dog and that woman, and felt like there was a story there.

Best Dog Books: What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

I think I was a little intimidated at first to write Baby’s chapters in free verse. I knew intuitively that that’s the way it needed to be written. Still, I hadn’t done it before. So every day, before I started writing the first draft, I read poetry, particularly Mary Oliver’s poetry. It always put my mind in the space it needed to be in to write that way. After a while, it became pretty effortless!

Best Dog Books:What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it about a dog? If so, what can you tell us about it?

I’ve just started the very early work on a new novel—too new to really talk about. It’s not a dog story per se, but there is a dog in it. My stories will always have dogs in them!

Best Dog Books: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

I hope what readers will take away from STAY is that when they see a “homeless” person on the streets, in a park, or standing in line to eat, that person is not defined by what their current living situation is. That person has a story; that person is somebody worthy of compassion.

STAY hits the shelves on August 13^th!

Best Dog Books: Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? Why?

CASEY THE UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE HORSE by Anita Fogle (I think) was the first chapter book I read all on my own. I was so proud and it was so much fun!

Best Dog Books: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Enjoy the journey and the exploration of writing. Don’t focus all your attention on finding an agent, an editor, getting published. You will never be so free to create and explore whatever you wish in your writing as you are before you’re published. It’s all about the journey!

If you’d like to learn more about Bobbie Pyron, you can check out the author’s website or follow the author on facebook or twitter.

Thank you Bobbie Pyron for joining us at Best Dog Books. We look forward to reading your book!

For other great books about dogs, check out 101 Best Dog Books for Kids.

For published authors and unpublished authors, check out our writing contests.

Today I welcome Barbara O’Connor to Best Dog Books, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a canine story for kids or young adults. On August 28, 2018, WONDERLAND will be available for readers 8-12 of age.

Who is your key dog character(s) and what kind of dog is he/she? Feel free to list as many different breeds or mixes as necessary. Tell us a little more about him/her.

Henry is a greyhound. He actually has his own point-of-view chapters, along with the characters of Rose and Mavis. Poor Henry is on the run but longing for a family of his own. But can he trust Rose and Mavis, who keep searching for him?

In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.

When Mavis and Rose hatch a scheme to find Mr. Duffy a new dog, their lives and Henry’s intersect―and they all come to find friendship in places they never expected. A story about the meaning of friendship, the challenges of growing up, and one lovable runaway dog.

What inspired you to write this story?

The title of this story was originally Rose and Howard Go to Wonderland. But for the first time ever, I hit a stumbling block when the character of Mr. Duffy just wouldn’t come to life for me. So I put it aside and started to write WISH. But I liked the character of Howard so much that I put him into WISH. When I was ready to go back to WONDERLAND, I needed a character to take Howard’s place. That’s when Mavis appeared, sitting on a bus stop bench with her mother, saying goodbye to yet another small Southern town so her mother could take a job as housekeeper to Rose Tully’s family.

What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge was getting Henry’s point of view just right. I wanted to really capture his doggy spirit, yet keep it believable. I overcame it by trying my best to channel a dog in his situation. I’ve lived with dogs all of my life, so that wasn’t too hard to do once I got into a groove with it.

What other YA/MG books have you written? Do any of them feature a key dog character? If so, which ones? What are these stories about?

I wrote HOW TO STEAL A DOG, which featured a dog named Willy. The main character and her family are homeless, living in their car. Georgina comes up with a plan to steal a dog, then wait for the owner to post a reward for a lost dog. She would simply return Willy and collect the money. Of course, that scheme is not a good one and things don’t go as Georgina planned.

Most of my other books have dogs in them, though not featured as main characters.

What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it about a dog? If so, what is it about?

I’ve just wrapped up WONDERLAND, so my head is totally empty at the moment. Yikes!

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?

It would have to be Charlotte’s Web. Why? Well, who could ever read that amazing story without being impacted?

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Write the story that only you can write – and tell it in the way that only you can tell it. Be brave. Take chances. And never worry about writing something that isn’t very good. You can always make it better – but you can’t fix what you haven’t written. Just do it!

Follow Barbara O’Connor on Facebook and Twitter or learn more about her on her website. Where can readers go to find out more information about you and/or your books?

Thank you Barbara O’Connor for joining us at Best Dog Books!

For other great books about dogs, check out 101 Best Dog Books for Kids.

For published authors and unpublished authors, check out our writing contests.

World Reads is a blog that features children’s books set overseas. Sometimes an adult world book sneaks in but for the most part World Reads aims to help kids, their parents, teachers, and librarians find books set outside of the United States.

From the publisher:

Part Homeless Bird and part Matched, this is a dark look at the near future told through the alternating perspectives of two teens who dare to challenge the system.

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.

Sudasa, though, doesn’t want to be a wife, and Five, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Five thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.

This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view–Sudasa’s in verse and Five’s in prose–allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope.