Secondhand Dogs Book Review
Hello friends.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend and had some sunshine in your neighborhood to celebrate any mothers in your life.

Today I have a book review and an interview with the author.

It’s always fun to get an inside peek into a creative person’s life and their creative process.

If you are a dog lover or you know a dog lover, this book is for you.

Secondhand Dogs, by prolific author Carolyn Crimi, is interesting in that the dogs speak to one another and understand the humans, but the humans don’t understand the dogs when they speak.

In many books with animal main characters, at least one human is able to talk to them, or there are no people at all in the story just animals speaking to one another.

In Secondhand Dogs, the animals really come across as animals—not just furry people, which was so clever and fun to read.

In this story, the dogs live a fine life with Miss Lottie, the woman who rescued them.

Quinn is the boy who helps take care of the dogs.

Gus is the gentle leader of the pack.

The other dogs look up to him…until Miss Lottie takes in a German Shepherd rescue, Decker, that reminds her of her childhood pet.

But this German Shepherd is a bully that insidiously asserts himself as Top Dog, pitting the dogs against each other and disrupting the calm household.

Decker deviously convinces one of the little dogs, Moon Pie the pug, that everyone has lied to her about her previous owner.

When Moon Pie runs away to find her beloved owner, leaving the safety of Miss Lottie’s home and venturing into the neighborhood where there’s a lurking coyote, Gus rallies the other dogs to look for the little pug.

Secondhand Dogs is a story about bravery, what makes a true leader, bullying, and family.

The story is charming, as are the illustrations (by Melissa Manwill).

I liked the book so much I bought two copies—one on my e-reader and one to put on my bookshelf.

An Interview with the Author—Carolyn Crimi

Thank you, Carolyn, for graciously accepting my request to ask you some questions and for giving me a glimpse into your world.

Gail: OK. Set the scene for me. Where are you right now?

Carolyn Crimi: I’m in my bright yellow living room with my laptop on my lap and staring out the window at a very gray day.

G: You have quite the portfolio of picture books—and awards! Congratulations! It looks like Secondhand Dogs is your second Middle Grade novel. Your first one, Weird Little Robots came out in 2019. What was the process like transitioning from writing picture books to writing novels?

CC: One of the biggest hurdles I’ve had with going from picture books to middle grade novels was basically how to transition from one scene to the next. In picture books, the page turn does a lot of the work. I have struggled with how much detail I need to move between scenes. And action, too, can be difficult since the illustrator is often the one doing the heavy lifting in that department.

G: That’s true! I hadn’t thought of that. Many of your picture books feature dogs, cats, bunnies. Were you worried about how to put animals in your novel as the main characters?

CC: Yes! Writing from an animal’s point of view can be very challenging. I struggled with things like, do dogs laugh? They do sort of smile but laughing for them is a sharp bark. I wanted my dogs to be very doggy, and I wanted to get it right. So I mention smells often, and I use ears, barks, and tail wags to portray emotion a lot. It’s tricky!

G: I was fascinated with how you were able pull that off. Your dogs were certainly very doggy and your cat was very catty. Are any of the dogs in Secondhand Dogs based on real-life canines?

CC: I love pugs! So while Moon Pie doesn’t really remind me of the pug I owned while I was writing Secondhand Dogs, he is still very pug-ish in that he just wants to be up on the bed with his human at all times.

G: I was just reading something online about the future of children’s books, and the author suggested that pugs will be trending. Moon Pie is ahead of the game! Of all the dogs in Secondhand Dogs, who is your favorite?

CC: Probably Moon Pie, but I think my favorite character to write was Ghost. He was such a funny, complicated character.

G: Ghost, the cat, was perfect. So when did you start writing stories, Carolyn?

CC: Oh, gosh, as soon as I could read, I started writing. I remember writing a love story in first grade about two of my teddy bears, Albert and Neptuna.

G: Awww! I hope you saved it. What’s your favorite thing about writing stories?

CC: There’s a certain buzz, a hum, that I get deep inside my bones when I’m writing a passage that feels real to me. It’s not something I can feel in any other way. It’s very specific to writing, and it’s very satisfying.

G: I like that. There is a joyfulness that comes from creating characters and writing scenes for them that absolutely seem real. So what does a typical writing day look like for you?

CC: I don’t really have typical days. It all really depends on my schedule. I try to write every day, but that certainly doesn’t always happen. I stopped feeling guilty about that long ago! Some days I write, some days I don’t. It’s my process, and it works for me.

G: Everyone is different, certainly. You’ve said your influences are Winnie-the-Pooh, Eloise, Wizard of Oz and Get Smart (a sit-com from the mid-‘60s until 1970—for those younger readers 😊). In what way did these influence you?

CC: I knew when I was little that I wanted to create similar things, like funny stories about quirky girls or cowardly lions. I wanted to make others laugh or feel the way I did back then.

G: I have to say, one of the highlights of a trip to New York City was seeing Eloise at the Plaza Hotel and Winnie-the-Pooh at the NYC Public Library. So are you working on something now? If so, can you share the tiniest teaser?

CC: I’ve always, always loved stories that involve mice. As a child, I played with toy mice and created little towns for them with all kinds of boxes. I want to honor that child by creating a mouse story that I would have loved back then. Hopefully, I’ll sell it to a publisher, but I can’t worry about that now!

G: To paraphrase author Toni Morrison, “You have to write the book that you want to read.” I’m already looking forward to reading it.

Thank you so much, Carolyn, for your time and thoughtfulness.

~gail

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