Welcome to Best Dog Books! It gives me great pleasure to introduce Sarah Lean, author of A DOG CALLED HOMELESS which won the ALA Schneider Family Book Award. A DOG CALLED HOMELESS was published in May 2012 by HarperCollins Children’s Book in the UK and later published by Katherine Tegan Books in September 2012.

Best Dog Books: Who is your key dog character and what is so unique about him/her.

Homeless is an enormous silver-grey Irish Wolfhound. His small brown eyes sparkle like a million stars; his beardy chin and whiskers twitch so you can tell what his face is saying. He is loyal, protective and gentle and means no harm but he turns up unexpectedly and howls outside a school hall scaring the children who are practicing singing for an end-of-term concert. Nobody is sure who he belongs to but Cally believes Homeless is the last link she has to her mother who died the previous year.

Best Dog Books: Could you let our readers know what your story is about? 

My name is Cally Louise Fisher and I haven’t spoken for thirty-one days.

Cally saw her mum, bright and real and alive. But no one believes her, so Cally’s stopped talking. Now a mysterious wolfhound has started following her everywhere. Perhaps he knows Cally was telling the truth.

Best Dog Books: Check out these wonderful reviews:

“Heartbreakingly beautiful…I loved it.” Cathy Cassidy

“An exceptional debut…richly characterized.” The Sunday Times

“Genuinely moving and beautifully written.” The Bookseller

“A tender story … miraculous writing will have you weeping one moment and rejoicing the next. A luminous debut.” Katherine Applegate, award-winning author of THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN

“A rare gem of a novel. Beautifully crafted, it hums with sensitivity and invites readers to consider the depths and nuances of communication and connectedness.” Leslie Connor, award-winning author of WAITING FOR NORMAL

“A wonderful story about the power of friendship…and the love of one very big dog. This perceptive and poignant story is a must-read for anyone who has lost something they loved – in other words, everyone!” Bobbie Pyron, author of A DOG’S WAY HOME

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

I am interested in language and the way we tell stories about ourselves to maintain our identities and relationships with people. But I am also intrigued by how we communicate without words. Cally was a character who wouldn’t be quiet in my head, although I was trying to write another story about a ghost! It just so happened around that time that my family decided to get our first puppy – Harry. The minute I saw Harry he found a place in my heart. When we brought him home, I began to understand the silent bond that people have with their dogs and I knew there had to be a dog in Cally’s story. Soon Homeless became the most important element in the story.

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

The biggest personal challenge was believing that anybody would want to read it. I just kept going because I knew I had to find out one way or another. But of course the real writing challenge was telling a story about someone that didn’t speak! Although I tried several other ways, Cally so clearly wanted to be heard that I realised she had to tell it herself.

Best Dog Books: 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?

No dog this time, but a hundred horses. A HORSE FOR ANGEL is published January 2013 in the UK (it will be published in the US under the title A HUNDRED HORSES) and is about finding something special in the most unlikely of places. It’s another MG book with a cast of animals – 3 chickens, a kunekune pig, a goat, some geese, and a herd of black and white horses (and more, but that’s for the reader!)

Nell is sent to stay with distant family in the countryside only to find that her secret case has been stolen by a troubled wild child called Angel. Two very different girls find they have to trust each other with their secrets to find out the truth about themselves, and to save a hundred horses.

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

I’d love to write about another dog character but I haven’t found ‘the’ story yet. For me it’s part of the real pleasure of writing, finding the pieces of puzzle that make a story worth telling. I always start with a human character, but find that animals provide an emotional background that enriches the story and they become key to the character’s adventure and resolution.  At the moment I’m writing about the special relationship between a girl and her granddad – and a whale!

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

I have heard lots of people cry when they read A DOG CALLED HOMELESS. I think that means they are moved by what happens.

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

I grew up reading Hans Andersen’s Fairytales but both THE FARAWAY TREE, Enid Blyton, and THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, C.S. Lewis, stand out. I think they had the power to transport me to another world and yet I was able to recognize and identify with the human heart of each story. (I often crawled through my mother’s wardrobe, through her dresses and fur coats, looking for a way to Narnia!)

For teachers and librarians, click here for additional resources.

For more information about Sarah Lean and her books, please click here.

Thank you for joining us at Best Dog Books today, Sarah. We look forward to your next 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 Lindsey Stoddard to Best Dog Books, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a canine story for kids or young adults. Lindsey Stoddard is here to talk about BRAVE LIKE THAT which is a middle grade novel published by HarperCollins for kids aged 8-12.

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

The dog in BRAVE LIKE THAT is a stray who wanders up to a firehouse on the night of my main character Cyrus’s eleventh birthday. He has wiry brown hair, and two white patches, one over his left eye and one on the tip of his tail as if he dipped it in paint. He’s skittish around the firefighters, including Cyrus’s dad, but he’s not around Cyrus, who gets down low and holds out his hand, and before long, the dog’s head is parked on Cyrus’s shoulder, giving him his name— Parker.

Best Dog Books: Tell us about your story.

BRAVE LIKE THAT is the story of eleven-year-old Cyrus, who was left on the steps of a firehouse when he was a newborn, and adopted by one of the firefighters, a local football legend named Brooks Olson. Everyone expects that Cyrus will be the next great wide receiver, but no one knows that he doesn’t want to be. He’s just not brave like that, brave like run into a burning building brave, brave like full tackle football brave, brave like his dad. But, with the help of stray-dog Parker, his fierce grandma, a tight-knit group of girls he meets at the humane society, and a new kid who moves to town, Cyrus must discover what kind of brave he is as he takes on some big issues in his life at the beginning of middle school.  

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

When I was ten, I found a stray dog in the woods behind my house in Vermont. She was skinny and scared and had no collar. I sat down in the woods a great distance away and watched the dog, and I named her Jen. She took off when she saw me, but I spent the rest of the day calling for her until finally, right before I had to go in for dinner, I saw her peek out from a tree. I got down low, put my hand out for her to smell and she slowly pawed toward me and followed me home. My mom and I loaded her in the car and took her to the vet where they discovered she was malnourished and pregnant with six puppies. I wanted to keep Jen so much. I didn’t want to leave her at the sterile vet’s office. I didn’t want her to go to the Humane Society. I wanted to take her home and care for her and make sure she wasn’t scared. But we already had a wonderful dog, and my parents assured me there wasn’t room in our family for another. I thought about Jen and her six puppies all the time, hoping that she was OK and feeling safe, and I visited her at the humane society until they found her, and each of her puppies, a home. This emotion of desire and worry and immediate connection was the birth of Cyrus and Parker’s relationship and my novel, BRAVE LIKE THAT.

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

During the writing of BRAVE LIKE THAT, we had our second baby and moved from NYC to VT with a 1.5-year-old and a newborn. What little routine I had in the city was upended as we navigated finding a new home and child care. But books are written one word at a time and I slowly found a new routine, in a new place. I think being a classroom teacher for ten years taught me to love structure, but also to be flexible enough to toss the structure out and build a new one. 

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?

My next book is called BEA IS FOR BLENDED and it’s due out in 2021. For Bea, it’s always been just her and her mom. But now, her mom is marrying Wendell. And what’s worse is that Wendell has three sons, two dogs, and a cat. And what’s even worse is that one of those sons is in her class, Bryce Valentine, the biggest bully-follower of all time. The dogs in this book, Dodger and Roscoe, are very closely bonded with Bryce, and initially Bea has no idea why. But as she learns more about what it takes to make a team, she learns more about Bryce, and why those dogs might be guarding his heart.

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

On May 1st my husband, kids, and I adopted our first family dog! She’s a 6-month-old, half basset hound, half black lab, rescue pup from Texas. Her name is Chloe and we are currently showing her all the love (and all the rules).  

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

I have always been a big reader and even before I could read, a big lover of books and stories. The first one that really hit me in the gut was BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA. It was the first book that made me close the pages and cry. And I was so grateful, because I think middle grade readers are seeking out these big emotions, big experiences, fear, loss, anger, etc. I felt like the author, Katherine Paterson, trusted me with the truth, no sugar-coating, just the truth about friendship and loss and guilt and the scary, awful things that can happen to characters and people you love.    

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

I didn’t realize it then, but all of the initial inspiration for my books came from tiny little seed ideas from when I was nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old. So young writers: even if you aren’t drafting stories or keeping journals, and even if you don’t think you have any good or worthy ideas— remember to be in the moment. Experience all the honest emotions you have. Feel them all the way through. When I was ten, I was angry about a boy who hit a bird’s nest out of a tree in my yard with a wiffleball bat, and sad and confused about my grandpa’s failing memory. Twenty-two years later I wrote JUST LIKE JACKIE. When I was twelve, I felt wracked with guilt and worry when I agreed to do a favor my brother asked me to do. That was the seed for RIGHT AS RAIN. And when I was nine, I found a stray dog in the woods behind my house. And now, I am so excited to be launching, BRAVE LIKE THAT, out into the world.    

If you’d like to learn more about Lindsey Stoddard, you can check out the author’s website or follow the author on twitter  or on Instagram . You can also find book reviews from Kirkus:

BRAVE LIKE THAT 

RIGHT AS RAIN

JUST LIKE JACKIE

Thank you Lindsey Stoddard 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.

I am thrilled to invite Kathi Appelt, author and VCFA faculty advisor extraordinaire to Best Dog Books! Let’s welcome Kathi! In 2008, Atheneum published THE UNDERNEATH which earned a Newbery Honor Award, a National Book Award Honor, and a USA PEN Award.

Who is your key dog character? Tell us about him/her.

Ranger is a bloodhound, a hunting dog by nature.  He’s old and weary.  He’s been chained to a post for many years by his cruel master, known only as Gar Face.

Tell us about your story.

A calico cat finds Ranger, a dog who has been chained to a post for too long to remember. Ranger urges the cat and her kittens to hide underneath the porch because otherwise Gar-Face, the man inside the house, will surely use them as alligator bait. Kittens, however, are notoriously curious creatures. And one kitten’s curiosity sets off a remarkable chain of events.

What inspired you to write this story?

When I was around nine or ten years old, we had a large, dog named Sam.  One day a small calico cat wandered into his territory and they became great friends.  A month or so later, the cat delivered a batch of kittens and Sam “adopted” them.  I’ve never forgotten his generosity, especially when the mother cat was killed by a car.  Sam took over in kitten care.  He was a wonderful stepfather.

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

The hardest thing for me was believing that I could actually write a novel.  I had written many other things—picture books, poetry, short stories, even a memoir.  But extended prose has always been difficult for me.  One morning, in a conversation with Tobin Anderson, he said, “You should always write what you think you can’t.”  For some reason, that helped me to see that failure was completely possible and even likely.  So, what did I have to lose?  Might as well writed the darned thing.  And that’s what I did.

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?

*KEEPER (2010, Atheneum) features two dog characters,B.D. and Too.  B.D. stands for Best Dog.  Too’s name comes from Best Dog Too.  KEEPER is about a girl who believes that her real mother is a mermaid and so she sets out in a small boat in the Gulf of Mexico, with her trusty B.D., to find that mother.

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

My next novel is called THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP. It’s due out in July, 2013.  There are no dogs, but there are raccoons, and a cat named Sweetums.

I do have a picture book about a dog that is due out in 2014.  It’s about the very real dog, Mogie, who lives at the Ronald McDonald House in Houston. It’ll be illustrated by Marc Rosenthal. The title is MOGIE, THE HEART OF THE HOUSE (2014, Atheneum).

I also have a picture book called BEFORE AND AFTER OTIS, that features coyotes.  That is also due out in 2014 and will be illustrated by Jill McMurry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

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

Well, I like dogs.  I grew up with dogs.  But these days, I’m a cat person.  My husband and I are owned by four gifted and talented cats:  Jazz, Hoss, Peach, and D’jango.

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

BLACK BEAUTY, by Anna Sewell.  I loved that book because I loved horses.

To learn more about Kathi Appelt and to find more of her books, click here.

Thank you so much for joining us at Best Dog Books, Kathi Appelt. 

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.

Where is THE DOGS OF WINTER, published by Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic (2012) set?

BOBBIE: Russia

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

BOBBIE: After the fall of the Soviet Union in the mid 1990s thousands of children and teens found themselves abandoned to the city streets. Young Mishka survives for two years after being adopted by a pack of street dogs. The book is based on a true story!

Links to starred reviews or blurbs you wish to share:

BOBBIE: THE DOGS OF WINTER received three starred reviews: Booklist, The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books, and Kirkus. Kirkus also named THE DOGS OF WINTER to their Best Books of 2012 list!

How are you connected to the setting of your story?

BOBBIE: I’m not connected to Russia in any way. But THE DOGS OF WINTER is based on a true story that did take place in the Moscow area, so that’s why it’s set where it is.

What inspired you to write this story?

BOBBIE: In 2005, I read a magazine article about feral children. The article opened with the story of four-year-old Ivan Mishukov, a homeless child who lived with a pack of street dogs from 1996-1998. Since I’ve always suspected I am more canine than primate, I’ve been fascinated by feral children for a long time! I was completely enthralled by Ivan’s story. I knew as soon as I read about Ivan and the dogs that I had to write a novel about them.

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

BOBBIE: Certainly, one of the biggest challenges was the fact that the story was set in a place and culture completely unfamiliar to me. I’ve never even visited Russia! I used up a lot of valuable energy worrying over street maps of Moscow and such. I worried about it so much I gave up writing the story for about two years. But then, when I knew I had to try to write it again, I realized that since the story is being told from a child’s perspective, he’s not going to see things like a tourist. He’s going to see (and relate) things from a 5-year-old kid’s level. That really freed me up.

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

BOBBIE: I have three dogs—two Shetland Sheepdogs and a coyote mix—all of whom are rescues. I am quite active in the Sheltie rescue community and with local rescue organizations.

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

BOBBIE: The first book I can remember reading and re-reading and re-reading (when I was about nine) is LASSIE COME-HOME, by Eric Knight. It was the first book I’d read that truly captured that amazing, almost mystical bond between dogs and their people.

Where can readers go to learn more information?

BOBBIE: They can visit my website: www.bobbiepyron.com

Thank you, Bobbie.

What a treat it must be to work with Arthur Levine!

Today I welcome J. Kasper Kramer to Best Dog Books and World Reads, a blog that features interviews with authors who’ve written a canine story for kids or young adults set overseas. The Story That Cannot Be Told, middle grade historical fiction, was published on October 8, 2019 by Simon & Schuster / Atheneum. The awesome cover art is by Isabella Mazzanti.

I just finished reading an advanced reader copy of THE STORY THAT CANNOT BE TOLD. I spent 1989 in Russia when the world was changing because of steps Gorbachev took. I recall meeting people who had escaped Romania around that time and learning about Romania’s leader. It still shocks me to think that a leader could treat his people the way he did that’s why I was interested in reading Kramer’s book for a deeper dive into the culture, the folklore, and the history through the eyes of a young girl. I was hooked from the first chapter and admired how the author wove so many story threads to create this story that reads like no other story I have ever read. If you like being transported to other places from the point of view of a strong girl character, if you like folklore and adventure, if you like historical fiction and intrigue, if you like good stories, this one is for you.

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

The White Wolf is a character from legends and folklore in Romania. He’s an important symbol in the Carpathian Mountains, where the wolf population is very dense, compared to other parts of Europe.

In my novel, the protagonist, Ileana, hears stories about the White Wolf, including a story about her mother meeting the wolf when she was a child. Ileana then begins dreaming about wolves and hearing them in the forest surrounding her grandparents’ mountain village. I won’t give away too much, but at the end of the book, the White Wolf and his story play an important part!

Where is your story set? What is your story about?

The Story That Cannot Be Told is set in 1989 Communist Romania. It takes place in Bucharest, the capital city, then moves to a small village in the Carpathian Mountains.

The novel is about young Ileana, who desperately wants to be a writer. After writing anti-Communist poetry, her uncle disappears, though, and Ileana’s parents send her into hiding. However, danger is never far away. To save the people she loves, Ileana must find her voice and the strength to use it.

The Story That Cannot Be Told has gotten some great reviews, including a starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Kirkus. Other great reviews include:

“By turns surprising, poetic, and stark, The Story That Cannot Be Told is one that should most certainly be read.”—Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee

“Stories have immense power to change lives. J. Kasper Kramer’s beautiful novel is proof of that. A compelling story of a history that should never be forgotten.”—New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen

What inspired you to write this story?

While living in Japan, where I taught at an international school, some of my very best friends were Romanian women. They told me folklore and fairy tales, as well as stories about their lives back home, and that helped me come up with the basic concept for my novel.

How are you connected to your setting?

I have some Central/Eastern European ancestors—primarily Poland and Lithuania—so I’ve always been interested in that part of the world. I began researching Romania and its fascinating history when I became friends with Romanian expatriates while living in Japan, and things took off from there. 

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

The research was a lot of work! And unfortunately, there aren’t as many texts available in English about Romania as you might expect, especially when it comes to studying things like folklore. I was lucky, because my friends were a constant source of support. They read drafts of my book to help me spot authenticity errors and even translated documents from time to time.

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

My next book was just announced! It’s titled The List of Unspeakable Fears and is forthcoming Fall 2021 from S&S/Atheneum! It’s a historical ghost story set in 1910 on North Brother Island—a quarantine island for the incurable sick of New York City.

A mangy, very old cat actually plays the most important animal role in my next book, but there’s a dog character, too. He belongs to Typhoid Mary, an important historical figure. (Most people don’t know that she was a dog lover!) Essie, the main character, is afraid of Mary’s dog, but don’t read too much into that—Essie’s afraid of the cat, too. In fact, she’s afraid of basically everything!

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

One of my favorite things about The Story That Cannot Be Told is that it isn’t just historical fiction. Throughout the book are chapters of retold Romanian folklore and fairy tales that were SO much fun to write. If you look closely, you might see how the real Ileana’s world and the Princess Ileana’s world begin to overlap in the novel!

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

I wanted to be a writer my whole life. I even remember telling my kindergarten teacher about it! And my parents read to me all the time. So there are surely dozens of books—as well as oral stories—that inspired me before I learned how to read on my own.

However, I think the first books that helped me figure out what I wanted to write—what kind of author I wanted to be—I read in middle school. I had always been a big reader, but I fell in love so deeply with the Extreme Zone series by M.C. Sumner and the Everworld series by K.A. Applegate that I remember not wanting to go on a family vacation because I was so sure that the next book in one of the series would show up from InterLibrary Loan while we were gone! (Thankfully, it arrived before we left and I spent the whole trip reading.)

It might be hard to see how those books connect to the historical fiction I write today, but fantasy, sci-fi, and horror have always been my favorite genres, and I work hard to incorporate them (subtly, if not overtly) in all my work. More than anything else, though, I think those books gave me a goal. I wanted to write stories that people loved reading so much they’d lament having to go on vacation if it kept them from reading!

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

I suppose, my advice is to take all advice with a grain of salt! You have to do things the way that they work for you. A lot of the advice I heard over the years about writing and publishing turned out not to be true for me. Now that I have a book on the shelf, I feel safe admitting that, but life would have been easier if I’d felt like it was okay to be different earlier on.

For instance, a lot of authors and craft books talk about the importance of getting up and writing first thing every morning. For me, though, that’s basically an exercise in staring blankly at my computer screen, even if I slept for 10 hours the night before and have had a full pot of coffee! I get my best work done between 6pm-2am because that’s simply when I’m most focused and most creative. I’ve tried to push back on that fact for years, and only recently have instead shifted to accommodating the way I work best.

To learn more about J. Kasper Kramer, check out her website and follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. To buy her book, you can find it on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

Thank you J. Kasper Kramer for joining us on Best Dog Books and World Reads!

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.