Let’s welcome The Writing Sisters: Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers today at Best Dog Books, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a story that features a canine character. Betsy and Laurie will discuss a book they wrote with Betsy Byars called Dog Diaries published by Henry Holt in 2007. 

AOB: Who is your key dog character and what kind of dog is he/she? Tell us a little more about him/her.

     Abu, thinks he rules Egypt

     Einstein, questions his name

     Pooch, concerned about a new “pet” in his house

     Tidbit, an unlikely star at the Grand Ole Opry

     Marcus, escapes the eruption of Mt Vesuvius

     Roscoe, a dog in love

     Mimi, gives her tips on etiquette

     Bo, captures a bank robber

     Jip, leads his blind master home from war

     Lucy, nurses orphaned kittens

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

In the first meeting of the WOOF Society, dogs of different backgrounds and breeds gather to hear the secret diaries of dogs throughout the world. Abu, the ruler of ancient Egypt is irritated by Miu, the royal cat.  Tidbit, born the runt of the litter becomes a star at the Grand Ole Opry.  Jip leads his blinded master back home after the Civil War. And others share their stories.

Starred reviews or blurbs:

Booklist:  “This collection of short stories combines the bedrocks of mass appeal: dogs, humor, and short chapters brimming with illustrations.”

School Library Journal:  “The 11 tales that follow cover many aspects of the animals’ lives and are by turns touching, funny, and sad.”

AOB: What inspired you to write this story?

We wanted to write a third book together, so turned to our favorite topic – dogs! We love dogs and getting inside their heads we thought would be fun.  We were right!

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

There weren’t many challenges. This was our third book together so we were confortable working as a team, brainstorming ideas and coming to conclusions more easily. We did spend some extra time deciding how it would begin and end, and that just took time to try out some possibilities.

AOB: What other YA/MG books have you written? Do any of them feature a key dog character? 

We love dogs and you see them throughout our books; sometimes as main characters, sometimes just hanging out with the other characters.

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

We are working on a Christmas book, and YES, there is a dog in it.

AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

Bank Street list of Best Children’s Books 2008

Young Hoosier (Indiana) Book Award Nominee 2011

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

Our mother used to read Robert McClosky’s books to us: Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal. We also made lots of trips to the library, which in our town was in the basement of the fire station. Interesting place for a library.

Thank you for joining us at Best Dog Books, today, ladies! If you wish to learn more about the Writing Sisters click HERE. If you want to learn more about Betsy Duffy please click HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Laurie Myers. 

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.

Lets’ welcome the Writing Sisters: Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers to Best Dog Books! What a cool thing you both get to do with your sister. How fun is that? To collaborate on books like:

My Dog, My Hero  released in 2001 by Henry Holt

AOB: Who is your key dog character and what kind of dog is he/she? Tell us a little more about him/her.

Bear, Dopey, Little Bit, Buster, Smiley, Old Dog, Blue, Munchkin (All heroes)

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

Eight dogs vie for the coveted My Hero award, but only one will win.  Will it be Smiley, who fought off a bull; or Blue, who saved his bark for when it counted; or Bear, whose magnificent strength saved a friend; or Munchkin who braved a snake; or one of the other heroic nominees?  Compelling and at times humorous, each story is told by a person whose life was changed by a dog’s bravery.

Starred reviews or blurbs:

Booklist:  “Drama, humor, excitement, and love fuel these short well-written stories that are certain to be relished by dog lovers.”

AOB: What inspired you to write this story?

One night over dinner we were brainstorming about books and how a book about heroic dogs might work.  We realized that it was a perfect idea for collaborative writing.  We have always loved dogs and growing up we had at least two, sometimes three, so it was a great fit for us, and perfect for our first collaborative book.

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

Choosing the winner was a challenge because we loved all the dogs and couldn’t pick just one.  We solved the dilemma by reading the stories to some third grade classes and letting them vote.  It was heart-warming to see that every single dog received votes.  The dogs were all so different and each one captured the heart of some of the readers.

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

We love dogs and you see them throughout our books; sometimes as main characters, sometimes just hanging out with the other characters.

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

We are working on a Christmas book, and YES, there is a dog in it.

AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

MY DOG MY HERO won the State Children’s Choice Book Awards in:

         South Carolina

         Louisiana

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

Our mother used to read Robert McClosky’s books to us: Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal.

Thank you for joining us today, ladies, at Best Dog Books! If you wish to learn more about the Writing Sisters click HERE. If you want to learn more about Betsy Duffy please click HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Laurie Myers.       

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.

Let’s welcome Pamela S. Turner today at Best Dog Books!

AOB: What is the title of your book? Pub date and publisher?

Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog. 2004, Houghton Mifflin. It’s a picture book for children. I think it’s most appropriate for the upper age of picture books—age 6 to 10.

AOB: Who is your key dog character and what kind of dog is he/she? Tell us a little more about him/her.

*Hachiko was a Japanese Akita who lived in Tokyo in the 1920s and 1930s.

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

*Hachiko accompanied his master, Dr. Ueno, to the Shibuya train station every working day and always met his master’s evening train. One day Dr. Ueno had a heart attack and passed away at work. He never returned to the train station. Hachiko continued to meet the train every night for the rest of his life. He died still waiting at Shibuya Station—and by that time he was famous all over Japan.

AOB: Starred reviews or blurbs you wish to share:

*”This beautifully crafted picture book pays tribute to one of the world’s lesser-known animal heroes: Hachiko…Turner unfolds this poignant true story in the natural, unaffected voice of Kentaro, a fictional little boy, who wonders at the dog’s unswerving devotion. Unobtrusive details evoke a sense of place (“ladies in kimonos walked carefully, trying to keep their white tabi socks away from the grime of the streets”), as does Nascimbene’s spare line-and-watercolor artwork, reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints…this will resonate with any child who has loved a dog and been loved in return.”

–Booklist starred review

AOB: What inspired you to write this story?

*I was living in Tokyo near Shibuya Station and saw the statue, which is inscribed “Loyal Dog Hachiko” in Japanese. Shibuya is now enormous—hundreds of thousands of commuters pass through every day—and if you need to meet someone there you always meet at the Hachiko statue. I asked some of my Japanese friends what the story was behind the statue. I thought Hachiko’s story was heartbreaking and inspiring and wanted to bring it to the English-speaking world.

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

*The biggest challenge was finding the right tone—I didn’t want anything overly sentimental or maudlin. I decided the right approach would be to tell it in the voice of an older Japanese man who might be telling the story to his grandchildren. That meant a certain amount of culturally-appropriate restraint in the voice.

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

*Aside from Hachiko, I’ve written mostly science and nature books for middle-graders. My books include Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes (the story of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project), Life on Earth—and Beyond: An Astrobiologist’s Quest (about looking for life in extreme environments), A Life in the Wild: George Schaller’s Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts (a biography of the most important field biologist of the 20^th century), The Frog Scientist (the story of Dr. Tyrone Hayes’s investigations of the link between amphibian decline and pesticide use), Project Seahorse (the story of coral reef conservation in the Philippines), and Prowling the Seas (high-tech tagging of leatherback sea turtles, bluefin tuna, white sharks, and seabirds).

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

*My new book The Dolphins of Shark Bay is coming out later this year. It’s about a wild bottlenose dolphin research project in Western Australia and how their discoveries are helping us understand why dolphins are so intelligent. Some of the dolphins in Shark Bay use tools. How amazing is that?

AOB: What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

*One of the interesting things about the Hachiko story is how well it fits into the Japanese tradition of the samurai retainer, who is loyal unto death. At the same time, the Hachiko story appeals to anyone who has experienced a dog’s unconditional love. Any culture with pet dogs can appreciate it.

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

*The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. I loved horses and picked this up because of the title. The Chronicles of Narnia are still my favorite books.

Hachiko is such a compelling story it was made into a movie. To view the movie trailer, click here.

Thank you for joining us at Best Dog Books, Pamela S. Turner! To learn more about Pamela and her books, check out her website.

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.

Let’s welcome Holly Thompson to World Reads!

What is the title of your book? The pub date and publisher?

* The Language Inside (May 14, Delacorte/Random House)

Where is it set?

* Japan and Massachusetts

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

• Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it’s the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma’s family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts to stay with her grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment. Emma feels out of place in the United States, begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother’s urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena’s poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return early to Japan.The Language Inside is a verse novel rich in language both spoken and unspoken and poetry that crosses boundaries to create a story layered with love, loss, movement and words.

Links to starred reviews.

How are you connected to the setting of your story?

* I was born and raised in Massachusetts, and I’ve lived in Japan for over 17 years.

What inspired you to write this story?

* Inspiration came from transcribing poems for patients at Goldwater Hospital when I was a graduate student at NYU; the immigrant communities of Lowell, MA; and volunteer work in Tohoku after the 2011 tsunami.

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

* Researching and learning about the whole of my character Samnang and his heritage, far beyond what appears in the book, was certainly my biggest challenge. Although I live in Japan, I was lucky to be able to spend time in Lowell, MA, and in Cambodia during key phases of my research, and most importantly to be guided and advised by members of the Lowell Cambodian-American community.

What kind of story can we expect next from you? Is it set outside of the United States? If so, where? And what is it about?

* The middle-grade novel I just finished is set in Japan and I’ll soon be at work on my next YA book set in Japan and the U.S.

What else would you like us to know about you or your story?

* The Language Inside is a verse novel that explores language both spoken and unspoken and features poetry that crosses boundaries. The story takes readers from Japan to the Cambodian-American community of Lowell, Massachusetts, and to the world of a woman who can only communicate through eye movement. It is a story layered with love, loss, movement and words, and I hope that readers enjoy it.

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

*  A Wrinkle in Time. At age 12 I was a slow reader and easily discouraged by a slow-moving novel. This book excited me; I was immediately hooked and glad to have a female main character.

Where can readers go to learn more information?

* For information about The Language Inside, Orchards and my other works of fiction and poetry, as well as various interviews, reader’s guides, news and speaking info.

Thank you for joining us today, Holly Thompson! 

The title catches your attention doesn’t it?

I found I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED with the adult books in the book section of my local Target store and couldn’t help but pick up the book.

I opened it to the first page and started reading and knew I wanted to learn more about Nujood of Yemen, the brave little girl who was married off by her father at the age of nine to a man three times her age.

Nujood Ali is the first child bride in Yemen to win a divorce.

She is hailed by Hillary Clinton as “one of the greatest women I have ever seen.”
Nujood was also named a Glamour Woman of the Year in 2008.

Carolyn Jessop, author of Escape and Triumph, says it best, ” This book took my breath away. It broke my heart but put it back together again with a renewed hope in the staggering power of the human spirit.”

Delphine Minoui is a recipient of the Albert Londres Prize and has been covering Iran and the Middle East since 1997.

I hope to do an interview with Delphine Minoui on World Reads in the future.

For now I hope to bring awareness to this powerful autobiography: I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED.

I couldn’t put it down and I’m sure you won’t either.

To learn more about Nujood, check out this video.