The Good Dog - Hardcover

Todd Kessler

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1626340900 ISBN 13: 9781626340909

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2014

Synopsis

Join Tako on an adventure as he makes a brave choice and proves that heroes come in all shapes and sizes

When little Ricky Lee finds a puppy on the side of the road, he takes him home and names him Tako. Ricky's parents say that they will allow Tako to stay only if he is a good dog and follows the rules--or it's off to the pound he goes!

Tako wants more than anything to be a good dog and stay with Ricky, but when greedy Mr. Prichard hatches a plan to put the Lee family's bakery out of business, Tako has to break the rules to protect his new family. Will he be able to spoil Mr. Prichard's plan and be a hero, or will he end up in the pound?

About this title

About the Author:

Todd Kessler is the co-creator and show runner of the highly successful children's television series ''Blue's Clues.'' A signature of Todd's work is it always developed with the input of actual children (and sometimes dogs and cats too). His artistic and innovative creations have garnered him the prestigious Peabody Award, seven Emmy nominations, two Television Critics Association awards, five Parent's Choice awards, first place in the children's division of the Toronto International Film Festival, and a New York Film Festival Cine Golden Eagle. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife.

Jennifer Gray Olson is a children's book author and illustrator based in Southern California. Her love of creating entertaining characters and the worlds in which they live led her into illustrating. Her work is created through a combination of ink and watercolor. She lives in Corona, CA with her husband, three children, two cats and one very good dog.

Review:

"This heroic canine adventure is a powerful testament to the incredible human-animal bond.  Readers of all ages will delight in discovering the tale of Tako and Ricky and will find themselves inspired by their triumphant friendship." - Robin R. Ganzert, Ph.D., President and CEO, American Humane Association

"Children and adults alike will enjoy cheering for little Tako, a dog who reminds us that sometimes the "bad" dogs turn out to be the best -- if we believe in them and listen closely." - Nicole Forsyth, President and CEO, RedRover

"As parents, it's our responsibility to lay down rules for our children, but there's no rule that fits every situation. We must discover a deeper responsibility--to nurture our children's own instincts for truth and fairness. The Good Dog is an outstanding story that instills children with a sense of their own inner capacity for smart decision making."
-Barry Michels, MSW, The New York Times bestselling co-author of The Tools


From the Miami Herald
Kids Learn Sometimes You Gotta Break The Rules In “The Good Dog”
By Jordan Levin

Everyone likes a good story. You have to think for yourself. Taking risks is scary but can have a big payoff.

These common sense statements are at the heart of a new children’s book, The Good Dog (Greenleaf Book Group Press). They are also central to its author, Todd Kessler, a creator of the game-changing children’s television show Blue’s Clues.

Kessler said he hopes that Good Dog will have the same kind of transformative effect on children’s books, literacy and our concept of their understanding and learning abilities that Blue’s Clues did for children’s television.

That’s an ambitious goal for a book with a little more than 100 illustrated pages. However, that happens to be three times as long as the standard children’s picture book. As with Blue’s Clues, Kessler has broken the rules of children’s publishing to follow his instincts and observations.

Kessler was producing live-action pieces for Sesame Street in the ’90s when he noticed that his experiences as the husband of a preschool teacher and father of two young children ran counter to many tenets of that beloved children’s show. Very short segments were the rule on Sesame Street. But Kessler, who saw that his children loved Disney movies and who read the Little House in the Big Woods series to his 5-year-old daughter, believed you could keep children’s attention much longer — as long as you had a good story.

In 1996, Kessler and partners Angela Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson persuaded Nickelodeon executives to launch Blue’s Clues, in which a guy named Steve and the animated dog Blue guide children through a half-hour mystery, on the fledgling Nick Jr. channel. Blue’s Clues became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on American commercial television. Kessler and Blue’s Clues were cited in the influential book The Tipping Point for demonstrating the crucial insight that children learn to think and understand the world through stories that engage them.

“The original concept of kids as TV viewers ... hugely underestimated kids’ ability to understand,” said Dan Anderson, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst whose pioneering research on children and media was part of the basis for the innovations in Blue’s Clues. “In various kinds of industries that deal with kids, very often they’ll base things on what’s been recently successful and not on principled ideas of what kids want and can understand.”

Kessler keeps his faith in complex storytelling with The Good Dog, which tells the story of Tako, an abandoned puppy taken in by Ricky, a young boy. Ricky’s parents say Tako can stay as long as he is a good dog and follows the rules. When the evil owner of a rival bakery, Mr. Pritchard, plays dangerous tricks to drive the family out of business, Tako must choose between breaking the rules — at the risk of being sent to the pound — and saving his family.

As with Blue’s Clues, there is research to back up Kessler’s instincts. Carolyn Strom, a professor of beginning reading and curriculum development at New York University who was an educational consultant on Good Dog, said children as young as 4 can, with the right help, follow complicated stories with several sub-plots. The drama and pictures in Good Dog provide that help. Yet the mature themes — the abandoned dog who is adopted and could be abandoned again, how to deal with the genuinely malevolent Mr. Pritchard — appeal to older kids.

“This book bridges both,” Strom said. “It has a sense of story for older kids, and it’s comprehensible and appealing to younger kids. The readability is second grade, but the themes are related to a much higher level.”

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1626340900
• ISBN 13: 9781626340909
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 112
• Illustrator: Jennifer Gray Olson