While the blog, Best Dog Books primarily focuses on author interviews, from time to time, I will honor dog books written by authors no longer with us. That said, I’d like to share one book from my childhood that made a huge impression on me when I was ten years old:
RING: A FRONTIER DOG
NY: Prentice-Hall, 1921
Written by Walter McCaleb
Illustrated by Edwin Megargee
One autumn Sunday in 1973 not long after we moved from New Jersey to New England—specifically to Northampton, Massachusetts, my parents took me and my siblings antique shopping along country roads through the Berkshire Hills. It was peak season. So the maples popped red-orange against vibrant green pines and pastures dotted by grazing white horses. With blue skies the air was as crisp as a McIntosh apple.
When we reached the Antique Shop, a former tobacco barn, my mother handed each of us a dollar. And we all darted out of the station wagon in search of finding something special. A leather bound book featuring a headshot of a black dog, named Ring on the cover caught my eye. Not surprisingly, Ring wore a white collar of fur around his neck. His eyes were big, round, and inviting—just like those of our family dog, a black cocker mix named Emma.
As I opened the book, the artwork by Edwin Megargee appealed to me most. His work looked as real as photographs with tissue paper protecting each page-length illustration. Pencil drawings mostly of dogs lined the top of each new chapter and told a story in images as I flipped through the pages from start to finish.
I was sold!
Like Old Yeller, the ending made me cry. So I only read the book once because the feeling I had experienced had stayed with me long after I had turned the last page. I didn’t need to relive it by re-reading the book. As sad as it had been to experience Ring’s fate and his dying loyalty to his family, I held onto this book into adulthood even though I had donated many other good books over the years to create space for newer books. So why did I keep this book, I often wondered? Was it the fancy and expensive-looking illustrations? The gorgeous leather bound cover? These were the answers I had come up with until I started to write my own stories.
After I revised Lara’s Gift, I decided to re-read Ring: A Frontier Dog to see if it would produce the same kind of feeling I had had as a kid. And wow! While the language is dated (with expressions like “Gee whilikins!” and “Geep!”) and more typical of language from the early 1900s, I was amazed at how the writing and story brought me right back to when I was ten reading it for the first time. And even though I knew the big scene was coming, it still made me cry just as it had forty years ago.
So I revise my answer of why I always kept Ring: A Frontier Dog because Walter McCaleb makes us care about Ring just as any modern day writer would do through the careful choices of scenes he selected to show us exactly who Ring was such that we care about him just as we would for any of our own loyal dogs. For this reason, I will continue to hold onto Ring: A Frontier Dog as a reminder of how important it is to make our readers feel their way through our stories and because I have no doubt of how it will make me feel should I pick it up again in forty years for a good read and cry.
Today I welcome Sam Angus to Best Dog Books, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a canine story for kids or young adults.
AOB: What is the title of your book? Pub date and publisher? Genre? Targeted age group? Illustrator?
Soldier Dog, Macmillan 2013
AOB: 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.
There are two dogs, Soldier who is a mongrel, fast and quick-witted and a collie /greyhound cross. The other dog is Bones, a Great Dane, big and playful and very loyal.
AOB: In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.
In May 1917, his brother fighting in France, his mother dead, the 13 year old Stanley is left alone with his Father and in trouble. He’s lost his father’s prized greyhound. Rocket is missing and in heat. When her mongrel puppies are born Stanley saves the runt, and names him Soldier for his brother Tom but his father, Dixon threatens to drown the pups. Stanley wakes to find the puppies and his father gone. Fearing the worst, he runs away and enlists and is recruited into the Messenger Dog Service where he is given a Great Dane named Bones. Stanley manages to train this unlikely messenger dog and eventually Bones and he are sent to France, where he realizes, finally, the brutality of war, and of course, the difficulty of finding Tom. Bones is killed in the course of action and the devastated Stanley longs to reveal his age and return home but he is given a dog named Pistol, and commanded to stay. Pistol is a traumatized, shivering wreck but the two are drawn to each other …
AOB: What inspired you to write this story?
One day, when not intending to write a book at all, I was stuck in a traffic jam on Park Lane in London, when I heard the story of the life of Airedale Jack, a British messenger dog. Jack’s story sent a shiver down my spine, even in the blistering heat of a July day in London and I knew then that I would write a story about the messenger dogs.
Other links to reviews or blurbs you wish to share:
Soldier Dog is a truly amazing book, and one of which the like is hard to find. I haven’t read a book like this in a long time – it made me laugh and smile, and feel as if I was there with the characters – feeling what they were feeling, seeing what they were seeing. And best of all – it had me sobbing for about the last four chapters. Soldier Dog should be on everybody’s list of must reads.
AOB: What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?
Hiding from my children. Writing in the car on a mobile telephone.
AOB: 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 have written a second novel, Hero, about a horse, no other books so far about a dog.
AOB: What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it about a dog? If so, what is it about?
I am writing now about a donkey and a camel. My next book will again be about a dog ….
AOB: Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?
The Dolphin Crossing, by Jill Paton-Walsh. For its youthful enthusiasm, bravery and heroism.
AOB: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Just write. Read and write, then read and write some more.
AOB: Where can readers go to find out more information about you and/or your books?
Today I welcome Stephanie Calmenson to Best Dog Books, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a canine story for kids or young adults.
AOB: What is the title of your book? Pub date and publisher? Genre? Targeted age group? Illustrator?
* Rosie, A Visiting Dog’s Story 1994 Clarion Books/HMH Nonfiction/Photo-essay Ages 5 and up. Photographs by Justin Sutcliffe ISBN-13: 978-0395927229
AOB: 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.
* Rosie is an irresistible, shaggy black-and-white TT (that’s short for Tibetan Terrier). Interestingly, TT’s are not terriers. They are part of the non-sporting dog group, and their official name is Dhoki Apso. Rosie loves to play fetch, have her belly rubbed, and meet new people.
AOB: In 70 words or less, provide a succinct plot description of your story.
* A confident and happy puppy, Rosie was the perfect candidate for a visiting dog program. Rosie, A Visiting Dog’s Story is a photo-essay book about the raising and training of a visiting dog. Readers get to join Rosie on visits to hospitals, nursing homes, and special schools as she cheers up people who are sad, sick, or lonely. Go, Rosie!
Other links to reviews or blurbs you wish to share:
Smithsonian Magazine calls ROSIE, A VISITING DOG’S STORY “one of the outstanding nonfiction titles of the year.”
AOB: What inspired you to write this story?
* I wanted to share Rosie’s story in the hope of getting more people involved in Visiting Dog programs. Rosie’s brought so much joy to people in need and, through her work and the book, has inspired many others to become pet partners.
AOB: What was the biggest challenge you had writing your story? How did you overcome it?
* Rosie’s great in front of a camera, but I’m definitely camera shy! I considered getting a model for the book, but when I speak at schools and conferences, people want to see the real team. The way I overcame the challenge was to have a gifted photographer, Justin Sutcliffe, perform his magic with a camera.
AOB: 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?
* My friend and colleague Joanna Cole (Magic School Bus author) and I have just started a series called, Ready, Set, Dogs! Growing up, we each wanted a dog more than anything, but couldn’t have one. So, starting with NO DOGS ALLOWED!, the Ready, Set, Dogs! books feature Kate and Lucie, two best friends who desperately want, but can’t have dogs. Browsing in their local thrift shop on day, they find two necklaces with sparkly pink dog bones and quickly discover their magic: With a pop and a whoosh, Kate and Lucie turn into dogs! Woofa-wow!
AOB: What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it about a dog? If so, what is it about?
* Joanna and I are having a great time writing the Ready, Set, Dogs! series. Book 2 is called Teacher’s Pets, so get ready to see Kate and Lucie as dogs at school!
The other book I’m working on is a new one about my dachshund Harry, who is the star of the book May I Pet Your Dog? The How-to Guide for KIDS Meeting DOGS (and DOGS Meeting KIDS), a Horn Book Fanfare title and ALA Best Children’s Video.
AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?
* Though it was pretty disappointing being a dogless kid, I had more than a dozen stuffed dogs to keep me company and my love of dogs stayed strong. That lifelong passion led me to write the books about dogs — both fiction and nonfiction — that I’m known for today. I get lots of fan mail about Rosie from both grown-ups and children, and especially love getting pictures of Rosie drawn by kids.
AOB: Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? And why?
* Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Her grandfather’s love, the Swiss Alps setting, the joy Heidi brought to Clara and how she helped Clara to walk touched my heart. I almost gave Rosie the name Heidi, hoping she’d make others happy the way Heidi did. I ended up naming her Rosie, because I immediately saw her rosie disposition and, sure enough, she’s brought much joy to many people.
AOB: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
* Write about what you love.
AOB: Where can readers go to find out more information about you and/or your books?
Web page: site currently works on computers only, not tablets or phones; new site in the works
A few weeks ago, Tami Lewis Brown sent me a link and asked me if I had seen the borzoi illustrations Maurice Sendak had done for Nikolenka’s Childhood, Leo Tolstoy’s first publication and near autobiographical account of his childhood.
Shamefully I had not and immediately placed an order. Via mail I received a collector’s copy of Nikolenka’s Childhood with Sendak’s signature prominently featured under his printed name.
Although a million errands demanded my attention, I decided to cuddle up in bed under a down blanket with a movie-sized box of Milk Duds, a cup of chai, and my faithful borzoi and silken windhound to keep me company as I was transported to pre-Revolutionary Russia.
All I can say is, “Double Wow!”
I wish I had discovered Nikolenka’s Childhood before Lara’s Gift went to print! Talk about authentic details I could have “borrowed” from Tolstoy like: wattle fence, abacus, the borzoi names “Milka” and “Zhiran,” fichu, caracole, nankeen coat, hussar, a calash, a britzka, vellum paper, Moscow clothes, tortoise-shell snuffbox, epaulets, turned-up little nose, game of robbers, birdlike face, scullion, hot iron pincers, use of “thou” and “thee,” mantilla, music of the quadrille, mazurka, drawing room, Hoffman’s drops, cornice, kutya, dropsy, unction, and tallow.
Borzoi fans will not only savor chapters six thru seven, we will thank Tolstoy for planting us in an actual hunting scene and making us feel like we are also on the hunt. Unlike in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, readers experience a hunt from a childlike perspective and fully relate to Nikolenka’s desire to earn his father’s praise and the devastation he feels at failing in the hunt.
Besides relishing the details in Tolstoy’s writing, along with Sendak’s lovely illustrations of borzoi and life on a Russian country estate, my favorite scene can be found in chapter seventeen entitled, “The Ivins,” for Tolstoy’s timeless and truthful approach in capturing Nikolenka’s desire to befriend Seryozha to the uncomfortable point where Nikolenka chooses to remain silent over Seryozha’s cruel treatment of another boy rather than question it and risk losing Seryozha as a friend.
What child doesn’t understand the fear and pain caused by a bully?
By chapter end, Nikolenka tries to make sense of “the only dark spot on the pages of his childhood recollections.”
I am quite unable to explain the cruelty of my behavior. Why did I not go up to him, protect, or console him? Where was the feeling of compassion which made me sob at the sight of a young jackdaw thrown from its nest, or of the puppy being taken to be thrown over the fence, or of a chicken the scullion was taking to make soup of? (108)
There are many other moments of truth throughout Nikolenka’s Childhood that remind us of our own childhood and tap into a wide range of our emotions: sorrow, joy, hope, love, and loss. Tolstoy once said that, “fiction, in order to be successful, should come singing from the author’s soul.” In Nikolenka’s Childhood, we hear Tolstoy’s song on each page and in every word.
How Animals Reveal Character in Children’s and Young Adult Fiction
by Christine Dowd
So many children’s novels illustrate the powerful bond between the protagonist and his or her animal companion that I could not possibly begin to name them all. But the sheer number of them illustrates how popular they are with children. Incorporating animal companions into your novels can add depth and dimension to your stories. By fully using animals in your stories to reflect your characters’ emotions, you can deepen the emotional impact on your reader and provide a lens through which your reader can glimpse the true nature of your characters.
In Gail E. Melson’s book, Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children, Melson states that animals are, “crucial to the human imagination and to the successful passage of children through adolescence and into adulthood.”
In his book, Animals in Young Adult Fiction, Walter Hogan states that, “The process of growing to mature adulthood can be enormously enriched by attentive interactions with the animals, both wild and domesticated, that populate the adolescent’s world and await his discovery.” (Hogan 217)
In Lara’s Gift, by Annemarie O’Brien and in Where The Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls, the animals depicted serve not merely as companions for the central characters, but as a mirror reflecting them, a means of revealing them, and illuminating something essential about them as individuals. Fully used by the author, the animals depicted in these novels also propel the characters into action that leads the protagonist to self- discovery. Thus, the animal companion serves as the catalyst to change in the characters.
While I focus on two novels that involve dogs, any animal, even a fantasy creature, can work well in children’s and teen literature to reveal your characters.
In Lara’s Gift, Lara’s beloved dog, Zar, serves as a mirror reflecting Lara’s determined spirit. Lara’s dream is to follow in her father’s footsteps and be kennel steward for the raising of Borzoi hunting dogs worthy of the Tsar. But in pre-revolutionary Russia, this position is traditionally passed down from father to son. When Lara’s mother gives birth to a baby boy, Lara sees her dream of being kennel steward slip away.
Lara knows that if she is ever to be kennel steward, she must first experience the hunt, but both Lara and her dog Zar are equally disadvantaged. Zar is excluded from the hunt because he is the runt of the litter, and Lara because she is a girl. Both must prove themselves capable and worthy.
The following passage shows Lara’s determined spirit through Zar.
“With my shoulders back, my chin up, and Zar at my side, I harnessed my most serious, grown-up voice. Tyatya, now that I’m fourteen, take me on a wolf hunt. Teach me what I need to know.” Zar pawed at my leg and goosed me with his long snout. “Zar’s ready too.”
“Hunting’s a man’s world.” Papa extended an outstretched arm over Borei, Bistri, and Sila. “With fine, fast, powerful dogs like these three.”
“Zar’s likely to be just as fine, if given the chance,” I said. “Don’t forget that Borei, Bistri, and Sila are his littermates.” (O’Brien 19)
Zar’s action of goosing Lara mirrors her own persistence. Both sense the excitement around the hunt, because it is in their blood, even though the other characters in the novel do not see this yet.
Further into the novel, we see the symbiotic relationship between Lara and Zar when they must both climb onto the old mare, Babushka’s back. This is not a particularly important moment in the novel, as the important action has just taken place, yet the author uses it to deepen our knowledge of character.
It is critical when hunting wolves for the dogs to be able to leap onto a horse’s back. This passage shows Zar’s determination as well as Lara’s, as Zar struggles to get onto the mare.
Alexander tightened his hold on Babushka’s reins and repeated the hand signal. She snorted and pawed the ground with her hoof, before eventually obeying.
“You can do it, Zar!”
This time, Zar took a few steps backward, and then in one leap, he landed square on Babushka’s rump, carrying his head high. Once he was settled, Alexander raised his hand and Babushka stood up. With his fingers locked together, Alexander held them out for me as a human ladder. “Your turn.”
“I, too, must do it by myself,” I said. (O’Brien 32-33)
In this scene, Lara and Zar mirror one another in their eagerness to prove themselves.
Both Lara and Zar have similar plot lines. Lara must take risks just as Zar, as the runt, must prove himself worthy of the hunt. Zar is limited by his size just as the protagonist is limited by her position in society.
But Zar’s presence in Lara’s life propels Lara into action. Alexander, the count’s son and Lara’s friend, convinces Lara’s father to allow Zar to participate in the hunt. Lara sneaks onto the sled without anyone knowing.
Zar ultimately proves to be a superior hunter, as Lara proves capable of handling the hunt. Part of Lara’s growth as a character involves the pain of letting Zar go, despite her love for him. But it is she who decides to send Zar to Tzar Nicholas as a gift, and this action shows the reader her true inner strength and proves her worthy of her dream. Both girl and dog also mirror one another at the novel’s end as they are both changed when Lara’s father declares Lara kennel steward, despite tradition, and Zar evolves into the prize of his litter, proving himself a superior hunter, despite his size.
We see a similar theme of determination in Where The Red Fern Grows. Through hard work, and perseverance, ten-year-old Billy, the son of a poor farming family in the Ozarks, saves enough money to make his dream come true of owning dogs to hunt coons with.
But while “Old Dan,” and “Little Ann” are Billy’s beloved hunting dogs, they also serve to reveal a great deal about Billy as a character.
Like Lara in Lara’s Gift, determination is a major theme that is echoed throughout the novel-it is determination that earns Billy his dogs. The author shows Billy’s determination through Billy’s actions, but reinforces this trait in Billy through Billy’s dogs. Like Billy, his dogs never give up on the hunt, no matter how challenging. Even Little Ann, much smaller than Old Dan, displays perseverance in treeing the coons.
While the novel depicts Billy’s love for his dogs, the dogs serve the larger purpose of revealing his character. They propel Billy to surmount more and more difficult challenges that test his perseverance, and the perseverance of his dogs.
Two scenes exemplify this well:
When Billy is attacked by a group of bullies in town as he is returning home with his pups, he fights back after one of the boys hurts one of his pups.
Freckle face pulled the ear of my little girl pup. I heard her painful cry. That was too much. I hadn’t worked two long hard years for my pups to have some freckle-face punk pull their ears. Swinging the sack from my shoulder, I walked over and set it down in a doorway. As I turned around to face the mob, I doubled up my fist, and took a Jack Dempsey stand.
Freckle-face said, “So, you want to fight.” He came in swinging.
I reached way back in Arkansas somewhere. By the time my fist had travelled all the way down to the Cherokee Strip, there was a lot of power behind it. Smack on the end of Freck’s nose it exploded. (Rawls 39-40)
This passage reveals Billy’s tenacity. Though outnumbered, Billy does not back down. Towards the novel’s end, this earlier scene is echoed when Old Dan and Little Ann save Billy’s life by fighting a mountain lion. Billy tells us,
I never saw my dogs when they got between the lion and me, but they were there. Side by side, they rose up from the ground as one. They sailed straight into those jaws of death, their small red bodies taking the ripping, slashing claws meant for me. (Rawls 226)
Old Dan fights until Billy has to pry his jaws from the lion. Like Billy with the bullies, Old Dan and Little Ann never back down, even though they are no match for the lion any more than Billy is a match for the bullies.
Billy’s dogs sacrifice themselves for Billy just as Billy sacrifices himself for his dogs. Through the death of Old Dan and shortly after, Little Ann, as in their hunting adventures, the dogs enable Billy to move forward. In life, his dogs propelled him to become a better hunter. In death, they help him move forward in his life, better equipped as a result of having experienced love and the pain of loss.
In a literal sense, the dogs function to propel Billy to action that in turn enables his growth. On a metaphorical level, they reflect and echo his characteristics. The red fern that grows between his dogs’ graves is a great symbol that goes beyond character traits. The red fern represents the sacredness of the bond between Billy and his dogs, since, according to Cherokee legend, only an angel can plant a red fern.
When you consider the numerous accounts about heroic dogs that have rescued people, or that have served as service dogs for the blind, or the military, it’s no wonder that they have made their way so prevalently into our fiction. The countless books written about dogs are a testimony to the important role they play in our lives and the lives of our children. Dogs remain an eternal symbol of loyalty and friendship.
While there are hundreds of great quotes about dogs, this one by Max de Pree really struck me:
“We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog has made an alliance with us.”
If you intend to use an animal in your fiction, think about how you can make that animal reflect your characters in a meaningful way and in so doing, give your reader a deeper insight into them. There are innumerable ways in which to do this effectively. Do it your way.
Christine Dowd is a graduate from the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. She loves to read fantasy, has a killer story waiting to be published, and enjoys hiking in the hills of California with her dog, Romeo.
Thank you, Christine Dowd for sharing some of your thoughts from your graduate lecture at Vermont College of Fine Arts. We look forward to reading about Orion, your magical horse and the journey Astrea makes with him to realize her dreams.
While the blog, Best Dog Books primarily focuses on author interviews, from time to time, I will honor dog books written by authors no longer with us. That said, I’d like to share one book from my childhood that made a huge impression on me when I was ten years old:
One autumn Sunday in 1973 not long after we moved from New Jersey to New England—specifically to Northampton, Massachusetts, my parents took me and my siblings antique shopping along country roads through the Berkshire Hills. It was peak season. So the maples popped red-orange against vibrant green pines and pastures dotted by grazing white horses. With blue skies the air was as crisp as a McIntosh apple.
When we reached the Antique Shop, a former tobacco barn, my mother handed each of us a dollar. And we all darted out of the station wagon in search of finding something special. A leather bound book featuring a headshot of a black dog, named Ring on the cover caught my eye. Not surprisingly, Ring wore a white collar of fur around his neck. His eyes were big, round, and inviting—just like those of our family dog, a black cocker mix named Emma.
Like Old Yeller, the ending made me cry. So I only read the book once because the feeling I had experienced had stayed with me long after I had turned the last page. I didn’t need to relive it by re-reading the book. As sad as it had been to experience Ring’s fate and his dying loyalty to his family, I held onto this book into adulthood even though I had donated many other good books over the years to create space for newer books. So why did I keep this book, I often wondered? Was it the fancy and expensive-looking illustrations? The gorgeous leather bound cover? These were the answers I had come up with until I started to write my own stories.
After I revised Lara’s Gift, I decided to re-read Ring: A Frontier Dog to see if it would produce the same kind of feeling I had had as a kid. And wow! While the language is dated (with expressions like “Gee whilikins!” and “Geep!”) and more typical of language from the early 1900s, I was amazed at how the writing and story brought me right back to when I was ten reading it for the first time. And even though I knew the big scene was coming, it still made me cry just as it had forty years ago.
