It's May, 2008, And We Want You To Meet Some Friends

This month, we are excited to have had a chance to chat (by e-mail) with Laura Vaccaro Seeger, one of the rising stars of the field of children's literature. Earlier this year, her book First The Egg was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book, which is one of the highest honors a children's book can receive. The greatest honor such a book can receive, of course, is to be loved by children who grow up to read it to their own children.

Ms. Seeger is still too young to have gathered that particular honor, but we're putting our money on her to achieve it. And we would bet particularly that her books about Dog and Bear will be among those that are passed on down the generations. They've already been compared with Arnold Lobel's beloved Frog and Toad, which is high praise indeed.

Ms. Seeger practices an art that looks deceptively simple. Providing both words and pictures, she creates characters with distinctive personalities. Characters that you recognize and smile at and with. Characters you want to spend more time with. The challenge is to do all this with a vocabulary and story length that won't make youngsters tune out. She's done that with Dog and Bear. Best of all? The eponymous Dog is a dachshund, modeled after Ms. Seeger's own dog, Copper (although Copper, pictured at left, is a black-and-tan and Dog is a red.)

In last year's Dog and Bear, Two Friends – Three Stories and this year's Dog and Bear, Two's Company, we meet a rambunctious and sometimes foolish dachshund and his best friend, a patient and understanding stuffed bear. Bear's patience is tried more than once by Dog, but the friendship never falters. Not when Dog wants desperately to play while Bear wants to be left alone to read his book, not even when Dog announces that he is very angry and is running away. But it's not a one-way friendship. When Bear is on a chair and is too afraid to jump down, Dog is the one who provides moral support, followed by a very practical solution to the problem.

Ms. Seeger told us that Copper is very like Dog, "as he spends his days saying 'Play with me! Play with me!', in his own little doggie way, of course. He's sweet, affectionate, playful, and absolutely adorable." (Special Bonus: Go to Ms. Seeger's site at www.studiolvs.com and see Copper starring in a Dog and Bear video produced by Ms. Seeger's son, Dylan.)

Knowing that Ms. Seeger has a background in animation, we asked her if there will be cartoon adventures of the two friends. We were happy to learn that she is working with an animation company on that very project. No dates have been set, so practice your Bear-like patience.

Ms. Seeger's next project, due out in the fall, will be called One Boy. She describes it as being about "counting, loneliness and creativity." As much as we want more adventures of Dog and Bear, we admire all her work and look forward to each new volume she produces. While you're waiting with us, click the pictures below to order your own copies of the two Dog and Bear books.

     

To get our phone or fax number, or just to send us an e-mail, click that sausage link above.

PRIVACY POLICY:
No information that you give us about yourself is ever shared with anyone else at any time for any reason.