It’s another fantastic poetry picture book that you won’t want to miss, illustrated by a variety of talented illustrators. Plus, there’s dogs of every kind!

David Elliott is the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books for young people, including the picture books ON THE FARM and the New York Times bestselling AND HERE’S TO YOU! He is the author of the critically acclaimed verse novels BULL, which received six starred reviews, and VOICES: THE FINAL HOURS OF JOAN OF ARC, which was shortlisted for the American Library in Paris Book Award and is the recipient of the Claudia Lewis Award for poetry. A native of Ohio, David now lives (and writes) in New Hampshire with his wife and their Dandie Dinmont terrier, Quiggy. You can learn more about David at his website.

BEST IN SHOW is a poetry picture book that collects poems about a different breed of dog on every page.  Each poem perfectly captures every single dog’s personality with humor and love, and there are nonfiction sidebars that add additional facts.  Add in glorious illustrations by some of kidlit’s best illustrators (David Ezra Stein, Catia Chien, Matthew Cordell, Oge Mora, etc.) and you’ve got a stunning collection.  There are 14 illustrator superstars (all of them award winning or best-selling) whose work shines in this collection.  This is such a fun book, but the love of dogs doesn’t end there.  Proceeds from the book are going to support the Shaggy Dog Rescue in Texas.  How can you not want to support that?  Dog lovers everywhere will eat this book up.  It’s a joyous celebration of everthing that barks.

Welcome David!

Me: You are a very talented and prolific writer and poet.  Can you talk about your journey?  When did you start writing?

David: First, thanks for the kind words. I don’t know about talented, but I do know that I work hard, especially for someone so naturally indolent. In my twenties, I traveled –always by the seat of my pants. After a stint in the Philippines (Peace Corps), I lived in Palau. Later, I made popsicle sticks at a kibbutz in the Golan Heights, washed cucumbers ten hours a day at the CriCri Cucumber Factory on the Greek island of Crete, sang with a friend at El Plaza del Sol in Cuernavaca ( uh . . . believe it or not, she later became the nun who at the behest of Pope John Paul designed the Vatican’s website), and signed on as an English teacher in Libya. When I got back to the States, I taught for couple of years, and then attended New England Conservatory in Boston. I wanted to be a classical singer. I can still sing a good folk song or Broadway tune, but I could never get Mozart into my body. A heartbreak.  Eventually I got married. That was 42 years ago. Still deliriously happy. By the way, all of that traveling made me a better writer in that when in a foreign country with very little money, I learned to be responsive to whatever surprising thing was before me. A good writer learns to be responsive to whatever surprising thing the unconscious presents when they are at their desk.

My first book was not exactly an accident, but certainly unexpected. I wrote it for my son, three at the time, with no intention, really, except to entertain him. We were living in Vermont, and a neighbor asked to see it. That neighbor turned out to have just retired as the executive editor at one of the major publishing houses for kids in NY.  She sent it to a friend at Philomel Books, and well, the result is An Alphabet of Rotten Kids, illustrated by the late, great Oscar de Mejo. (Out of print now, but I’m very happy to say it was banned in Spokane, Washington.) By the way, we don’t talk enough about the role that luck plays in our lives. We all have it. The trick is to be ready when it comes knocking.

After that first book, it took me a long time to really understand and hone my craft. After more than thirty-five published books and five or six on the way, I’m still learning. With every book, l’m back at the very beginning. I think that’s kind of great.

Me: I noticed that part of the sales of this book are being donated to the Shaggy Dog Rescue in Texas.  Is that what inspired the book?  Where did the idea for this picture book come from?  Why that particular organization?

David: I am forever indebted to Kathy Wetmore at Shaggy Dog Rescue. It was through her that I adopted the dog love of my life, a Dandie Dinmont terrier mix, Quiggy. Our beloved bearded collie, Psyche, had just died. I saw Quiggy’s picture online, called Kathy, and told her that I was a writer, lived a quiet life, and that I needed a dog that wasn’t going to drive me crazy. “He’ll be perfect for you,” she said. “In fact, I was going to keep him myself.” How right she was. He was two or three at the time. We lost him last March after twelve years. Still grieving for that little guy. Kathy has devoted her life to saving the abandoned, the abused, the neglected dogs of Houston.  Her efforts have brought hundreds of people happiness. I am forever indebted to her and was thrilled when the editor of Best in Show, the INCREDIBLE Kate O’Sullivan made it possible for Kathy’s organization, Shaggy Dog Rescue, to receive some help.

The book itself was an outgrowth of the animal poetry books I have published with Candlewick. On the Farm. In the Wild, In the Sea, On the Wing, In the Past, In the Woods, At the Pond, and At the Poles. In the Desert will be published, in 2025 and the last in the series, At the Edge (animals like the pangolin, the leafy sea dragon, and the naked mole rat) the following year.  (Thank you, Liz Bicknell, another fantastic editor and a good friend.) Best in Show didn’t seem right for the series, but I still wanted to write about dogs. How happy I am that it ended up at Clarion with Kate., who also, by the way, edited Bull, Voices, and The Seventh Raven.

Me: I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your dog.  My condolences.  BEST IN SHOW is quite a collection of poems that also conveys nonfiction information about a variety of dogs.  It’s also beautifully illustrated by 18 different and immensely talented illustrators.  Which came first, your poems for the illustrators to illustrate?  Or did the illustrators pick a dog breed to illustrate and you wrote a poem about them? 

David: The text is always first. I send the manuscript to the editor, who then makes suggestions for changes, and points out inconsistencies. I then respond, and we go back and forth until we’re both satisfied. Kate herself is a renowned dog-lover, which very much helped. We wanted to include both familiar breeds – Labs, for example, but we also thought it would be fun to expand our young readers’ knowledge of the canine universe, hence the Komondor and the Xoloitzcuintli. (I still can’t spell that.)

It was Kate’s idea to have a different artist for each breed. Genius. It meant a lot of extra work for her, but that idea brought so much to the book.  The greatest gift a writer can have is a smart, enthusiastic editor willing to go the extra mile. I feel incredibly lucky. To be honest, I don’t really know how the artists went about choosing the breed they wanted to illustrate. I do know that I was thrilled with each of their contributions. Thrilled and grateful. It takes many people to make a picture book, the author, the illustrator(s!), the editor, the proof reader, and the design team. It’s a lot like theater in that regard, and one of the reasons I love writing them.

Me: Your writing sings on every page.  I love how brief some of the poems are, yet so perfect in describing the breeds.  Some of the poems seemed like they could follow a form, but others could have been free verse.  Did you use a poetic forms for any of them?  Did you have any favorite poems in this collection?

David: You’re very nice to say such a thing, and I have to admit that I love that you used the verb “sing,” since I studied  voice and am keenly interested in the music of the language of anything I write. That’s why I hope folks will read my books aloud. That’s how they were written. Anyway,  thanks for noticing.

Though a lot of folks these days dismiss it, I love formal poetry. I love reading it, the late Richard Wilbur, for example, and I love writing it.  (I think Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc, makes use of  more than seven different forms, some familiar some not – the rondeau, the triolet, the sestina, etc.) Writing in these forms has taught me so much about the possibilities waiting to be unlocked in our language. I find it liberating.

For Best in Show, while I make use of rhyme and meter, I didn’t follow the rules of any particular form. I don’t know why. As with the books in the Candlewick series, I guess I just tried very hard to listen to what each dog wanted me to say about it. Okay, I know that sounds a bit crazy. But so much of any kind of writing is listening, listening and responding to what you hear. It’s a mystery really. We don’t honor that enough.

Me: I love that.  Were there any poems that got cut out of the collection?  Or any poems you wish you had included?

David: It’s been a while since I wrote the text, but I can’t think of any that didn’t make it into the book though. I’m sure there were some. Also, important to remember that the poem you read is not the way the poem first went onto the page. I don’t know how many drafts for each poem there were, but well, a lot!  I’m tinkering. Until the very end.  What I secretly want to do is write a poem for each dog listed in the American Kennel Clubs list of breeds, a kind of canine encyclopedia in verse. Er . . . I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Darn!

Me:  LOL!  The illustrations in this book are just wonderful.  They are absolutely perfectly chosen for each poem and I find it impossible to choose a favorite.  Were there any illustration surprises for you when you finally saw them?  Any favorites?

David: Each of them surprised me, surprised, delighted, and thrilled. I have no artistic talent and it was wonderfully interesting and expansive to see the way each of the illustrators approached their page. The imagination is a wonderful thing, and like fingerprints. No two are the same. I am so grateful for each illustrator’s contribution and the hard work and sacrifice it took to get them where they are today.  If only we honored artists (and teachers), the way we honor stock brokers, techno wizards, and athletes. I think we might all be happier.

Me: Any advice for other new picture book writers or poets?

David: Well, my first piece of advice is not to take advice. Instead, I’d say to listen to yourself. Forget all those questions about other writers’ process and find your own. I taught for twenty years in Lesley University’s Low Res MFA program. When they graduated, I always said to my students “Now forget everything you’ve learned, and write your book.”

The only other thing I’d say is that I’ve discovered that my work is only good when I get out of the way, by which I mean when I let the poem, the story, the novel lead me rather than the other way around. I try to think of myself as a scribe rather than a writer. It helps to keep me humble. (I hear my friends laughing right now.)

One other thing, Perseverance is a wonderful thing. Perhaps the only thing.

That is excellent advice.  Thank you for stopping by my blog today David.  I can’t wait to read AT THE EDGE next year.

Dear readers, if you love poetry picture books as much as I do, you won’t want to miss this one.  It is released into the world today and dog lovers everywhere will want to check it out.  It’s a wonderful combination of text and illustration that I highly recommend.