For The Love Of A Dog #4

Once you have bonded with your canine companion, you become the definition of two hearts beating as one.  You learn to read each other's intentions, moods and patterns.  A wise vet told me a happy dog is a tired dog, so Xena and I spent hours outdoors.  We ran or walked from four to five miles per day along the lake shores, down country roads and through the woods, no matter the season or the weather.

During those excursions as I watched her I became more aware of my surroundings in a sensory way; acutely aware of sounds and smells and not relying strictly on sight.  You are able to let your mind wander on little or large things.  At the end of the day or during quiet times of reading or writing, your dog brings a peaceful presence into the room; a muse for many.

Shortly after she was four Xena had her first seizure.  I had finished working in my study in the loft.  I was a couple of stairs ahead of her as we descended.  She started to falter and tumbled.  I caught her before she fell any further but after that episode, she never followed me there again.  Before Wi-Fi, when I still worked upstairs, she would get as close to me as she could, waiting for me next to the bottom step.  Knowing she was there kept me centered.

Through social media I have found I am not alone in having a furry friend who supplies artistic support and inspiration.  A Lucky Author Has A Dog (Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., September 29, 2015) written by Mary Lyn Ray with illustrations by Steven Henry portrays the special connection between an author and her dog over the course of several days.  Everyone has stories to tell. Prepare to find your story.


Early in the morning, people are waking and going to work.

A dog is ready to go to work too.  First their author needs to wake up and get dressed.  After breakfast the best part for the dog is their human works from home rather than leaving.  Ever attentive the dog knows when the author needs a creative push.

Authors can and do write in a variety of places, at times working feverishly or stalling when searching for the correct thought.  Wondering how to further assist the dog stays near, available for action and watching every movement.  As the pile of discarded ideas grows, this is a clear signal for the dog.  It's time to get outdoors for a walk.

As a team, sometimes one searching in one direction while the other looks in the opposite, they seek stories.  They close their walk in dinner time companionship.  As night turns into day, something feels out of the ordinary to the dog.  What's this?  The author is leaving.

It's Author Day at the local school.  The author speaks to the students.  They pepper her with questions and she cheerfully responds encouraging them to become authors.  Guess who's waiting for the author at home, leash at the ready, looking out the window?  Both are very fortunate because...


Mary Lyn Ray begins this story with her dedication:

For all the dogs who,
of themselves, make us lucky
              ---MLR

As she recounts their time together, she does so using an easy, conversational voice.  She alternates between why she is lucky and the dog is lucky revealing how an author seeks a story and how it grows.  During her author visit dialog makes the event relevant and real for the readers.  Here is a sample passage.

After lunch there's time for book signing.

A first grader warns, "You shouldn't do that.
You'll get sent to the principal for writing in books."

A third grader asks, "Why do you always write
about dogs?"


Created in Corel Painter 12 (The final illustrations were based on original pencil sketches.) by Steven Henry these cheerful images begin with the matching front dust jacket and book case.  The dog, head cocked, is looking directly at the reader among the evidence of an author hard at work.  The wagging tail shows an eagerness to supply what is needed at the moment.  On the back, to the left, an interior image and two sentences are placed on a background of white.

The opening and closing endpapers are the same shade as the brown in the dog's collar.  On the title page beneath the same text in red, the author is sound asleep with her dog tucked around her body on the bed.  The verso and dedication pages' text is enclosed in a two-page picture of a New York City street and its citizens going about their morning.

For the majority of the pictures Henry's background is white (on thicker matte finished paper).  He may spread his illustrations across two pages, on a single page or group them in fours on two pages to supply pacing.  At one point urgency is generated by five smaller illustrations together over two pages.

There is softness in his pictures but an obvious energy.  His people are fully engaged in life; perhaps mirroring the ardor of the author's dog.  Readers will want to pause and absorb all the details; a mother in a stopped car giving her child a teething ring, someone new moving in next door to the author's apartment as the dog looks out the window, and all the authors at work have animal company even if it's a stuffed one.  Careful readers will notice the presence of the girl wearing the polka-dotted boots several times in the narrative.  And watch the blue balloon at the end.

One of my favorite pictures is of the author taking a break by walking her dog in the afternoon.  Steven Henry's design and layout is impeccable.  The perspective shifts from left to right drawing our attention to the dog gleefully running down the street.  Who's walking who?  I think I can hear panting and barking.


Not only are we introduced to the practices of an author but we are made aware of the importance of a dog in this author's life.  In A Lucky Author Has A Dog written by Mary Lyn Ray with illustrations by Steven Henry we are welcomed into a wonderful world full of perseverance and exploration.  This title has much to offer for those who know the importance of a canine's place in their lives, for those wondering how the daily life of an author truly is and for those about to have an author visit their school.   Readers are lucky to have this author and her dog.

To learn more about Mary Lyn Ray and Steven Henry and their other work please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Steven Henry visits author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

. @Loveofxena A Lucky Author Has a Dog looks great! http://t.co/NOuDx3d0BV pic.twitter.com/8ZIajdB6pJ

— John Schu (@MrSchuReads) May 21, 2015

Dusk And Dreams

As if on some internal clock, a stiff breeze blowing throughout the day will calm as dusk descends.  Squawking blue jays, save further chiding for tomorrow.  Bright blooms fold their petals until the sun welcomes with warming rays in the morning.

A busy pace is slowing. In Go To Sleep, Little Farm (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, September 2, 2014) written by Mary Lyn Ray with art by Christopher Silas Neal readers are gently lead about the farm, surrounding fields, and nearby woods as night falls.  Inside the house a little girl mirrors the animals and their activities as she and her family welcome bedtime.

Somewhere a bee
makes a bed in a rose,
because the bee knows day has
come to a close.

A beaver builds a bed of branches, a bear snuggles inside a log and mice burrow to hide from a hungry owl. Kits heed the call of a mother fox.  Horses, cows and a single rooster come to rest.  A peaceful pastoral scene is unfolding.

A clear sky supplies a canvas for twinkling stars.  Rabbits run for home.  Deer come out of hiding to eat their meals.

Having finished for the day a farmer father turns out lights, heading to tuck in his daughter.  A book is opened. A story is shared.  A mother bends to whisper words as a daughter drifts into dreams.  Outside the world heads further into slumber.


Simple lilting words by Mary Lynn Ray lead readers into the soothing softness of the dark.  Her rhymes pave a path for us to follow from creature to creature.  Through a selective use of language she shapes a lullaby balancing between the inside and outside worlds.  Here is another example.

Somewhere a worm sleeps in the dirt.
Somewhere a pocket sleeps in a skirt.


It's impossible not to feel a sense of calm when looking at the illustration spanning the dust jacket and cover.  Christopher Silas Neal's color palette, here and throughout the book, reflects the fading light of sunset to the shadows of twilight and the deep hues of night.  The rusty barn red, shades of blue, gray and black, green and pale yellow, cream, brown and white mingle on a matte-finished paper to convey emotion and mood.

Neal alters the size of his illustrations to heighten the meaning of the text; taking readers close to an item, moving back to give a greater perspective or showing a cut-away underground, underwater or inside (the log) to bring us into the story.  It's interesting how he interprets the text by showing a comparison of the animals engaged in getting ready for bed on the left with the young girl doing something similar on the right; the beaver building a pile with sticks as she builds a pile of toys on her bed.  Careful readers will note the passage of time through not only the change in background colors but in the time conveyed on the bedside clock.  Neal meticulously places series of the letter z adding to the tranquility.

His two-page picture of the brown rabbits clustered together in sleep with a seventh hopping to join the group is one of my favorite illustrations.  They are gathered in a flower-dotted clearing surrounded by bushes and trees.  The barn, farmhouse, fencing and a single horse are featured on a rise in the distance.  This is the accompanying rhyme.

Already, trees sleep the way that trees sleep.
Brown rabbits snuggle in a sleepy heap.


To settle a group, to close a day of classroom work or send your children off to bed, Go to Sleep, Little Farm written by Mary Lyn Ray with art by Christopher Silas Neal is a stellar selection.  I guarantee everyone, readers and listeners alike, will feel the calming comfort of the combined text and pictures.  So get comfy, snuggle with your friends and family and read this book.  It's sure to become a often-requested title.

For more information about Mary Lyn Ray, her life philosophy and her work visit her website by following the link embedded in her name.  At Christopher Silas Neal's website, linked to his name, he includes nine interior illustrations.  Information is also supplied about the process used to create other artwork.

To Face Your Fears

Having spent more than half my life terrified of storms, it's fairly easy for me to identify with Xena's look of panic when thunders starts to rumble.  Yesterday, after the sun played hide and seek for most of the afternoon, a front quickly passed through our area.  We were both surprised when out of the quiet, a large boom shook the walls of the house.  Xena froze and I checked the radar.

We have sat together on the floor, covered ourselves with a blanket like a tent and one night Xena came up on the bed, lay next to me and I hugged her until the lightning and thunder were finished.  Boom!: Big, Big Thunder & One Small Dog (Disney Hyperion) written by Mary Lyn Ray (Stars) with pictures by Steven Salerno introduces readers to Rosie, a fearless pooch except for one thing.  It's like I always tell my students, everyone has one thing (or more) they wish to avoid at all costs.  It's up to us to provide comfort and understanding.


Although Rosie was a small dog,
she was usually very brave---
just like the boy she knew best.

Nothing fazed this dynamic bundle of energy.  No stuffed tiger toy, no household cats or orangutans pictured in books kept Rosie from being her happy, on-the-go self.  Neighborhood helpers like postal workers, firefighters and law enforcement people (even the sirens) did not fill her with fear, only curiosity.

Some canines go crazy in the car wash with the water shooting in all directions but not this spunky pal.  Some dogs hear the word bath or if you turn on the shower or tub faucet, they will vanish but not this loyal friend.  Rosie was invincible...well almost invincible.

Thunder was not Rosie's friend.  Her boy tried giving her doggy treats, singing and even offering explanations for all those loud...loud...loud sounds but nothing worked.  She knew in her heart of hearts the sky was growling at her.  And the sky was huge.

Every attempt to hide would not keep the sky from seeing her.  Even when Rosie could not see the sky by closing her eyes, she knew it was watching.  Caring for Rosie as he did, the boy knew what to do.  In the coziness of his bedroom in the center, they made a shape with no beginning and no end, a shape formed by love, as the thunder fiercely continued.  Two friends, facing fear...together is better.



It came as no surprise to discover that author Mary Lyn Ray shares her life with a dog.  Her keen observations of canine behavior shine through in her word choices.  Her description of the boy's attempts to ease Rosie's fear, three of which involve food, speak to the soul...er...stomach of most dog's I've known.

He told her it was hot clouds popping like popcorn.

Each portion of the narrative reads like a verse in a poem; vivid, alive and with a subtle beat.


All you have to do is look at the matching jacket and cover to discover the attention to detail noticeable in the work of illustrator, Steven Salerno (Brothers At Bat: The True Story Of An Amazing All-Brothers Baseball Team).  Much like the Boom! in the title, the illustrations are vibrant and full of motion; calling attention to Rosie, her personality and her fear of thunder.  The ISBN bar code on the back has been designed to look like rain falling from a darkened cloud.

The opening and closing endpapers are a pattern of blue sky, black, gray, and white clouds, a shining sun and bolts of lightning.  One of the internal pictures becomes a frame for the title page.  A special touch on the final right-hand side page is a single color visual in response to the Rosie's bark. Brilliant.

Throughout the book, the color palette focuses on primary colors with emphasis on blues.  Salerno's skill in combining gouache, crayon and layering in Photoshop makes his double page, single page and vignettes irresistible.  Readers will completely enjoy the shift in perspective; the opening two pages of Rosie running along with the boy riding his bicycle (all we see is the lower half of the bicycle), the more wide-angle view of all the community people about their work looking at a cat stuck in a tree, Rosie getting a bath zooming in on the tub and her expression, Rosie covering her closed eyes with her paws as the booms surround her and she and her boy in his bedroom.  I have too many favorites in this book to select only one.

Boom!: Big, Big Thunder & One Small Dog written by Mary Lyn Ray with pictures by Steven Salerno is one of those picture books where readers can easily identify with the main character.  With each reading your affection for Rosie grows.  This is a perfect read aloud for addressing fear and how the kindness, friendship and love of another can give you courage.  I can predict multiple requests for reading this again and again.

Embedded in the author and illustrator names above are links to their websites providing additional information about each of them.  Here is a link to illustrator Steven Salerno's blog.  He has written a detailed post on the process of creating the pictures for this title.  It's loaded with artwork.

They, Like Many Things, Are Everywhere-Stars

I have long held the belief that we buzz through life much too quickly missing the details that Mother Nature has laid before us so splendiferously.  With the melody of When You Wish Upon a Star sung by Walt Disney's Jiminy Cricket forever echoing in my mind, I still experience a surge of joy at spotting the first star in the evening casting my wish skyward.  Author Mary Lyn Ray and two time Caldecott Honor Award illustrator Marla Frazee collaboratively convey the magical marvel of stars, not only scattered across the horizon but those found all around us if we only choose to see, in their new title, Stars.

Using spare but profound poetic text Ray offers readers musings on stars' place in our world, their effect and purpose in the design of life; she makes us see that the magic is attainable if we change our perspective. 

A star is how you know it's almost night.
As soon as you see one, there's another, and another.
And the dark that comes doesn't feel so dark.

She wonders about the impossibility of catching them in a basket but the possibility of making one to keep in your pocket like a favorite rock but really not the same.  Stars can be a symbol of safety, honor an achievement or be an object of fantasy.  Always keeping your special star in your pocket, it's okay to give another one away; because on those not so shiny days all you have to do is touch the one you've saved.

Moss, strawberry and pumpkin blossoms, snowflakes and fuzzy dandelions yield their own celestial wonders.  But it is in the darkness of night those pinpoints of light will have one or many gazing upward, amazed at this gift that is there everywhere even when we can not see them.  It is this knowledge that brings a continuity to this book; this is the heart of what Ray shares with readers.

As soon as I saw the endpapers, clouds across the sky in the front and a starry sky in the back,  illustrated by Marla Frazee I knew that a visual treat as only she can deliver awaited.  Using graphite, gouache and gel pens wide expansive skies and intimate individual progressions deepened the spirit of the words.  Liberal use of white space draws readers' eyes to the hand-lettered text by Frazee; hand-lettering adding a very personal touch to the title.

There is a softness to Frazee's illustrations that invite, urge and comfort readers; a universality conveyed in her character's individual gestures and emotions.  Predominantly using an array of hues of blue, gray, green and golden yellow as backgrounds breaths life into those characters.  A small boy walking his dog as the first star of the evening appears, three children gathered around a picnic basket inside a hollow tree lit by lantern's light reading a book, mouths open in laughter children aboard a red sled cascading down a snowy slope or the boy with his dog blowing on a dandelion seeds swirling, billowing outward are some of my favorite images from Stars.

I can just picture this being read to a child cozy in bed, to a group around a crackling fire on a clear summer night or a group of pajama clad students on Pajama Day.   May this endeavor by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee together for the first time be the beginning of many to come.  I'll wish on a star.

To access the author's and illustrator's websites please follow the links embedded in their names.  For more interior visuals from the book, follow this link to the publisher's website.