When I wrote Story Dog, I was thinking about children who are shy, who don't find it easy to read out loud in class. Not everyone is super confident, and that's absolutely okay :) 

So Harry is a little boy who loves stories, but he doesn't find it easy to read out loud, because he struggles a bit.

Every night after school, Harry goes to the Dog Shelter, where his mother works. He sits in the office and practices his reading.

Then his Mam introduces him to Cal, a sad old lonely dog, who waits silently every day, hoping for a family…who never come.

Harry offers to take Cal for a walk, and this is how their friendship begins. Every day, after school, they walk together and get to know each other. Then one day, Cal decides that he wants Harry to read him a story!

With the old dog's gentle encouragement, Harry learns to feel confident about his reading, all that matters is that Cal wants him to try - and so he does!

Soon, the two are lost in the stories they are sharing; sometimes they are pirates, chefs, racing drivers or even trapeze performers!  

With Cal's help, Harry finds his voice and reads so well in class that he gets a prize for excellent reading! But when he dashes to the shelter to tell Cal all about it, there is some news...

A huge part of the inspiration for this book is my love of teaching reading and my love of dogs. I know that not every reader is super confident, we are all so different, It's okay. You just need to try and don't worry about making mistakes.

We adopted our very own Cal, from a shelter here in France. Nobody wanted him because he was old. But we loved him and in return, he blessed our lives with his beautiful, positive spirit. 

It seemed only natural that the Story Dog would be named after my own sweet Cal! 

Sadly, as I was finishing off this book, Cal became very ill. He passed away in my arms, which was heartbreaking but such a privilege to be there to say goodbye, and let him know how much he was loved.

So this book is dedicated to my sweet Cal and to anyone who has ever welcomed a rescue animal into your heart and your home. You're all beautiful.

When Story dog was published, we honoured his memory by adopting another rescue dog. So we now have Titus and Rafa.

But I will never forget my sweet Story Dog, Cal.

Here are some sketches and character development at different stages of the process.