Lisa Cohn's Blog, page 5

Hero Dog Story Told By 5-Year-Old

Hero dog story told by 5-yr-old Michael

By Lisa Cohn

When we released our first book, Bash and Lucy Fetch Confidence, we wanted to teach kids all about the brave, helpful and sometimes life-saving things dogs do for kids. We wanted to tell hero dog stories and superpower dog stories.

Michael, who was five at the time, decided to tell hero dog stories. We had read about dogs that kept lost hikers warm overnight, dogs that rescued kids who were drowning in rivers and dogs that rescue their owners.

Watch young Michael tell a hero dog story:

In our books, the heroine is Lucy, who helps out the kids on a soccer team by building their confidence, making them laugh, showering them with love and–in our soon-to-be-released book–solving a mystery using a special superpower. The book, Bash and Lucy say, “Love Like a Dog,” is now being illustrated.

Lucy isn’t the only dog who helps out the members of the soccer team and their coach. In Book 3, Bash and Lucy Fetch Team Vera and the Dream Beasts, Coach Danny adopts Hudson at a pet fair and it changes his life. In our upcoming book, the owner of a video game store, Mr. Anderson, adopts Sassy, and he joins Danny as an enthusiastic dog lover. He adopts Sassy after a stint in Dog-Tention. What’s that? Stay tuned and read the next book!

Be sure to watch our boy-and-dog book trailer, which features puppy Hudson romping with 5-year-old Michael. It was filmed and edited by an award-winning videographer, Denis Berberovic, and includes a quick appearance by Michael’s older sister (who also appears in our new book).

Watch the trailer:

You might also be interested in listening to the audiobook for our last book. You can listen for free: Bash and Lucy Fetch Team Vera and the Dream Beasts

Questions or comments? Be sure to email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com

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Smile! Our Boy and Puppy Book Trailer

Michael, age 5, and puppy Hudson

By Lisa Cohn

Nine years ago, an award-winning teen videographer filmed our boy and puppy book trailer, featuring puppy Hudson (now 9) romping with Michael, age 5.

Hudson became a new family member a few months after our dog Lucy died suddenly at the age of six, breaking our hearts. To help us overcome the pain of losing her, we wrote our first book, Bash and Lucy Fetch Confidence, which features Lucy, a ball-loving golden retriever who instills confidence in the kids on Bash’s soccer team. Her loving, happy-go-lucky personality is a supportive and goofy presence while the kids are playing soccer. And of course, she makes the soccer players laugh.

Because Michael loves to listen to audiobooks, just after we released our first kids’ dog book, he came up with the idea of producing an audiobook with voice-overs by him, me, his sister and his friends. You can listen to the audiobook HERE.

Hudson became a character in Bash and Lucy Book 3, and even did some voice-over barking in our third audiobook.

You can learn more about what a mischievous puppy Hudson was by reading a story I wrote for Dogster, My Dog Ruined My Son’s Birthday Party, and Taught Me Who My. True Friends Are.

Be sure to watch the book trailer, starring Hudson and Michael, along with a brief appearance by Ally,  Michael’s older sister. (She appears in Books 3 and our soon-to-be released fourth book. She’s also one of our voice-over artists.)

After watching this video, you will likely understand why Hudson is always the most popular pup in the park!

Be sure to email us with any questions and comments! BashAndLucy@gmail.com. And stay tuned for our fourth book, which is now being illustrated! It’s titled Bash and Lucy Say, “Love Like a Dog.”

 

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A New Type of Superpower Dog: Covid-Sniffing

Hudson’s superpower is sniffing out balls once they get away from him

By Lisa Cohn

We’ve written about a superpower dog or three before: dogs can identify when a diabetic person’s blood sugar is dropping, and alert them to the need to act. They can sense when autistic kids are getting upset, and exert pressure on their legs or arms to help calm them. Dogs’ superpowers often come from their keen sense of smell. They can even smell certain types of cancer.

Our dog, Hudson, can find a ball lost in the woods simply by following his nose.

Now comes a new type of superpower dog: one who can sniff out COVID, helping schools and other organizations identify whether people are infected with the virus. In fact, a dog’s nose can be more accurate than a PCR test, according to an article in Smithsonian Magazine.

Dogs trained to sniff out Covid identified Covid cases in 335 people at 97% accuracy just by smelling human sweat, said the article.

“The study, led by Dominique Grandjean at the Alfort School of Veterinary Medicine in suburban Paris, was published in PLOS One. It suggests that with the proper scent work, canines could help obtain test results fast in mass screening efforts and reduce the need for invasive nasal swab tests,” said the article.

Researchers have also found that dogs can identify cases with no symptoms 48 hours before people test positive in a PCR test, said the Smithsonian piece. The dogs who participated in the study were from French fire departments and the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates. When the pups identified the virus correctly in sweat samples, they were rewarded with toys. The dogs in the study had undergone scent training in the past.

For the study, the researchers used dogs from French fire departments and the Ministry of the Interior of the United Arab Emirates. Each pup was rewarded with toys like tennis balls if they picked out the virus successfully in sweat samples.

“If a dog sniffed a sample it thought was positive for Covid-19, it would sit down in front of it. It took about 15 seconds for the dogs to sift through 10 sweat samples from 10 different individuals that neither the dogs nor human handlers had interacted with before. Aside from detecting the virus, the dogs were also asked to find negative samples and identified the Covid-free samples with 91 percent accuracy,” said the Smithsonian article.

The dog-sniffing research isn’t only taking place outside the U.S. At an elementary school in Massachusetts, a dog named Huntah identifies COVID by smelling kids’ backpacks. This helps prevent the spread of Covid and helps kids stay in school. Listen to the podcast here.

In our next book, Bash and Lucy say, “Love Like a Dog,” Lucy, a golden retriever, has a special superpower that helps solve the mystery of the missing library books. We can’t give it away, so stay tuned, and be sure to thank your dogs for whatever superpowers they bring to your household!

P.S. Be sure to watch puppy Hudson frolic with Michael, age 5, in our first book trailer:

 

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Superpower Kids, Superpower Dogs

Young Michael and Hudson

By Lisa Cohn

Superpower kids and superpower dogs are important themes in our fourth book. We’re excited to say that we finished writing the book and are now working on editing and illustrations! (Some important announcements coming soon).

The superpower kids in our latest book are super sensitive. In fact, that’s what gives them their powers.

As Vera, Bash’s Ukrainian grandmother says in the book, “Super sensitive makes superpower.”

But for our main character, Bash, super sensitivities carry both pros and cons. On the positive side, his super-tuned nose helps him smell the ingredients in the pizzas that Vera cooks. His tender ears can hear people whispering from afar. He can sense what’s about to happen on his soccer team, and move quickly to score goals and assists. And he’s very smart. He can read quickly while listening to music or audiobooks.

Research suggests that super sensitive kids, like Bash, often are very bright.

A pilot study by the STAR Institute for Sensory Processing found that 35% of the kids in one large sample of gifted children showed symptoms of sensory processing disorder (SPD). The link between SPD and giftedness is due in part to the fact that gifted kids’ brains are wired differently, Lisa Porter, a Ph.D occupational therapist told Lisa (Cohn) during an interview for an article.

Recent studies about gifted kids found that they have more “neural connectivity” in their brains than more typical kids, says Porter. In addition, certain brain changes occur later in gifted kids.

“You have all these connections in the brain, and at some point they are whittled so the remaining ones get stronger. You keep the ones you use the most,” she explains. This “whittling” or “pruning” generally happens in toddlers and adolescents. However, in gifted kids, this pruning happens later, which helps explain why gifted kids often have sensory challenges. “They are really intelligent in some ways but can experience delays in executive functioning and other issues,” Porter explains.

For Bash, being sensitive means he can smell what his friends’ ate for breakfast, and that can make him sick to his stomach. If he hears a kid say something negative about him, his sensitive feelings are hurt. The noise and chaos at his school makes him anxious. And when kids get jealous because he’s a good soccer player and a great math student, he worries that he’s doing something wrong.

Dogs, too, have super sensitivities that give them superpowers. We’ve written about how diabetic service dogs sound the alarm when they sense drops in kids’ blood sugar. They try to “tell” children and people around them that something is wrong. Some dogs do this naturally–if they’re really bonded with the child. Others can be trained to sound the alarm.  And autism service dogs can feel when kids are anxious, and help them feel more comfortable.

In our books, Lucy helps calm Bash when he’s upset or overwhelmed. So does visiting the library and reading.

In the fourth book, we discover that Lucy has her own special sensitivity and superpower. She helps solve an important mystery in the book. But we can’t give it away! Stay tuned!

Questions? Email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com

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Superpower Dogs, Superhero Dogs!

We’ve written about superpower and superhero dogs: Using their keen sense of smell and ability to sense how humans feel, they help people with diabetes, autism, seizures and other conditions.

For example, diabetic service dogs sound the alarm when they sense drops in kids’ blood sugar. They try to “tell” children and people around them that something is wrong. Some dogs do this naturally–if they’re really bonded with the child. Others can be trained to sound the alarm.

Autism service dogs can feel when kids are anxious, and help them feel more comfortable. Some autistic kids take service dogs with them to go bowling, to barbecues, to  lakes, and  to other fun activities. Being with one particular service dog can make a child feel happy and safe.

Sometimes, dogs can sense when a child is about to have a seizure. This can be a life-saving gift.

In our fourth book, Lucy has a very special superpower that helps solve a mystery. We can’t give it away, but stay tuned for the book release in the next few months!

Dogs can be more than superpower dogs. They can be superhero dogs. On our dog blog Michael has told stories about superhero dogs.

For example, a dog jumped in front of a car to save two girls, and injured himself badly. Watch Michael, age 5, tell the story:

We think our dog, Hudson, has superpowers. That’s because he can makes us feel loved and safe. But he also makes us laugh, the way he did in our “Bash and Lucy” book trailer:

Be sure to be on the lookout for your dog’s superpowers!

In the meantime, we’re working hard at editing the draft of our next book, which is a chapter book for middle grade students. It features our Ukrainian heroin, Vera, a dog lover who actively spreads the word about the wonders of our canine friends and what they can teach people.

Speaking of superpowers, Vera has a few of her own! Watch Michael dedicate our last book to his surrogate grandma from Ukraine:

As always, email us at BashAndLucy@gmail.com if you have questions!

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Our hearts are with our book’s Ukrainian heroine

Vera, our book’s Ukrainian heroine

This week, our hearts are with Vera, our next book’s Ukrainian heroine and an important force for good–in the book and in real life.

We were just finishing up our fourth book when Russia declared war on Ukraine.

In the book, Vera is an assistant mayor and Bash’s grandmother from Ukraine. Her strength, goodness, smarts, empathy, cooking skills and talent for delivering moving lectures are important influences on daily life in a town called Woof-Woof Nation (a name created by Vera and Ally, Bash’s sister and the town’s mayor.). Along with Ally, Vera institutes daily holidays, changes the state animal and creates a loving, effective way to help people who have gone astray. After a lecture from Vera and a kiss from golden retriever Lucy, some of the book’s characters become forces for good, just like Vera.

Vera is based on the real Vera, an immigrant from Ukraine. When Michael was two or three, we met Vera at a play group near our house. She is the grandmother of Michael’s good friends, Levko and Lukyan, and the mother of our friend Tatiana.

Vera and Michael hit it off, and when Michael was six or so, Vera announced that she was Michael’s grandmother. She has taken that role very seriously, caring for him when I (Lisa) am busy, cooking him home-made pizza and cookies, giving him holiday and birthday gifts and most important, showering him with love and kindness. She also teaches him about what it was like growing up in Ukraine, delivering passionate lectures that always begin with, “In my country…” Some of these lectures appear in our books .

Vera grew up in Soviet-occupied Ukraine, in the village of Cherkasy. She never met her father and grew up not even knowing his name. To this day, she still doesn’t know; he died in the Second World War. As a member of the Ukrainian army, he had also fought against the Soviets. His political views could have meant that her entire family would be sent to a Gulag camp, she said.

People who were in the Ukrainian army were getting sent to Sibera or prison, she told me during an interview for The Immigrant Story.

Because Vera’s mom wasn’t a member of the Communist Party, she received no pension and had to work low-level jobs to make ends meet. Every morning Vera’s mother rose at dawn to walk into town and fuel the hospital’s wood boiler before the doctors arrived. Before leaving the house each morning, she made bread for her three children and braided Vera’s hair while she slept.

When Vera turned six, her mother convinced the local teacher to let Vera attend school, in part because the bright young girl demanded it. Conditions were dismal. “The school was half-broken, only one big room. We had one long table and there was fourteen children, different ages,” said Vera. The classroom had only one bucket of water for all the students. A shared mug was attached to the water pot by a chain because the school was afraid that the students would steal it.

When Vera was six, the widow next door stole Vera’s family’s goat. The neighbor hoped to get arrested so her children would be in government care and would have access to food and clothing. The neighbor’s plan worked, and her kids went to a government school.

Ukraine at the time was rife with sad stories like this. Vera and her family members were always hungry, she says. To help keep her children fed, Vera’s mother planted a special kind of edible grass, as well as sugar beets.

“They would give us a ticket for one loaf of bread for one week,” Vera recalled. “When I was very young, I went at night and stayed in the long line to get bread.” She wrapped herself in scarves and lay in the dirt to hold her place in line.

After graduating, Vera worked in a shoe store, married, divorced, and became a single working mom. At night, after putting her children to bed, she often knit and sewed clothing to make extra money. She did this in the bathroom because she didn’t want to wake her children.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Vera lost all her savings: $10,000. “Most Ukrainians lost all their money,” she explained. “After the separation [dissolution of the Soviet Union], Russian banks did not give Ukrainians their money.”

Vera’s youngest child, Tatiana, left Ukraine to visit an exchange student and ended up staying and attending Yale University. After Tatiana married and had her first child, Levko, Vera moved to Portland to help with her grandchild and became a U.S. citizen.

You can read the entire story about Vera, She is a Girl-Power Grandma.

Vera now volunteers for her church and babysits to make money to send to Ukrainian soldiers. At the beginning of the COVID crisis, she sewed face masks and donated them to health care workers, the county and the homeless.

During this week’s crisis, Vera’s daughter, Tatiana, has served as a leader in the Ukrainian community. You can listen to an interview with her here.

This week, our hearts are with Vera, Tatiana and all Ukrainians.

Please watch Michael dedicate our last book to Vera:

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Be Like A Dog

Hudson Chasing Michael and Friends

“Be like a dog” is one of the themes of our fourth book, now in progress.

What does that mean?

Last week, for our dog, Hudson, a golden retriever, it meant chasing sledding kids down a hill even though Hudson has arthritis. It meant refusing to go inside, even though he was cold, wet and starting to limp. It meant ignoring his pain for the sake of having fun.

You can watch Hudson having a blast here:

Hudson Chasing in the Snow

Be Like a Dog means living in the moment. It’s all about being loyal, having fun, quickly forgiving and most of all, loving. Being like a dog also means showing empathy. When someone in our household is upset, Hudson is quick to sense it and run to the aid of whoever is sad or angry.

In our next book, Vera, Bash’s grandma from Ukraine and the assistant mayor, champions the idea of being like a dog. She does this at town hall, the library and the state legislature. She’s supported by Ally, the town’s mayor.

One of the book’s characters argues that these two dog-loving females (Vera and Ally) have too much power. You’ll have to read the book to see if you agree! And you’ll have to listen to the audiobook, which will feature the voices of Michael, Ally (Michael’s sister), Vera and of course, Hudson, who is a bark-over artist in our audiobooks.

Listen to our latest audiobook here: Bash and Lucy Fetch Team Vera and the Dream Beasts

You can also check out our book trailer, a video of 5-year-old Michael and puppy Hudson frolicking:

And you can learn more about fun-loving Hudson and the lessons he imparts in this story in Dogster about how puppy Hudson took control of Michael’s birthday party and taught us some lessons:

My Dog Ruined My Son’s Birthday Party and Taught us Who Our True Friends Are

With 14 boys coming to our house for my son Michael’s fifth birthday party, I developed a plan that detailed every moment of the two-and-a-half-hour celebration. It was designed to create the impression that ours was a well-run, loving, organized household whose youngest member was deserving of summer play dates. I had somehow failed to convey this message during the school year, when I often picked up Michael while I was either sobbing over the untimely death of our dog, Lucy, or wrestling with our four-month-old Golden Retriever, Hudson, whom I had hoped would fill the hole in my heart.

Continue Reading in Dogster: My Dog Ruined My Son’s Birthday Party, and Taught us Who Our True Friends Are

As always, email questions and comments to BashAndLucy@gmail.com. And don’t forget: Be Like a Dog!

 

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Letting Go of Kids’ Books, Donating to Book Bank

Boxes of kids’ books for the Children’s Book Bank

It’s not easy for Michael, now 13 and chief of the Roving Reader Leaders, to let go of his kids’ books.

But today, for the second time, we gathered up some of our favorites and donated them to the Children’s Book Bank, based in Portland.

Among them were some of our favorite kids’ dog books. They include Nate the Great (You can see Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine at the top of the book pile), some Scooby-Doo books and others.

When Michael was younger, he reviewed numerous Nate the Great, Scooby-Doo and other kids’ books on YouTube, including Scooby-Doo and the Zombie’s Treasure. That led to his appearance on the Today Show at the age of five.

Letting go of these treasured kids’ books was difficult, but we felt it was important to ensure other kids have a chance to read them.

This was the second time we donated to the Children’s Book Bank. The first time, in March,  we donated about 40 Bash and Lucy picture books, along with hundreds of used books and learned about the organization’s mission.

The non-profit organization provides books for children in need, through organizations such as Head Start.

“In low-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books to children is one book for every 300 children. Middle-income neighborhoods average 13 age-appropriate books per child,” we learned from the book bank’s website.

Recently, the book bank merged with SMART Reading, which is a nonprofit children’s literacy organization serving kids in Oregon’s highest need schools with one-on-one reading time and access to books. Across the state, SMART Reading gives away more than 140,000 books each year. Its volunteers read with Pre-Kindergarten through third-grade children, building confidence and literacy skills. (In fact, Michael’s big sis, Ally, who appears in our latest book and is a our voice-over artist for our audiobooks, volunteered for SMART Reading as a high schooler).

We were excited to donate our beloved books to such important organizations.

As always, our aim is to inspire kids to read more. Right now, Michael and I lead a Roving Reader Leaders book club weekly at a local library.

Watch the video trailer for the Roving Reader Leaders, which features Michael and friends–age 5-12–gushing about their favorite books:

Be sure to check out the Children’s Book Bank and SMART Reading!

 

 

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Our Dog Taught Us Who Our True Friends Were

Michael, age 5, and puppy Hudson

By Lisa Cohn

When Michael, now 13, was five, our dog Hudson was just a puppy. Hudson frolicked wildly at Michael’s fifth birthday party, and taught us a few lessons. At Michael’s recent 13th birthday party, Hudson also insisted on being in the middle of the action, but he didn’t cause quite as much trouble.

Here’s a story I wrote for Dogster about our first birthday party with Hudson:

My Dog Ruined My Kids’ Birthday Party, and Showed Me Who My True Friends Are

Watch a video of 5-year-old Michael frolicking with puppy Hudson, which was the trailer for our first book:

 

 

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Our Dog Taught Us Who Are True Friends Were

Michael, age 5, and puppy Hudson

By Lisa Cohn

When Michael, now 13, was five, our dog Hudson was just a puppy. Hudson frolicked wildly at Michael’s fifth birthday party, and taught us a few lessons. At Michael’s recent 13th birthday party, Hudson also insisted on being in the middle of the action, but he didn’t cause quite as much trouble.

Here’s a story I wrote for Dogster about our first birthday party with Hudson:

My Dog Ruined My Kids’ Birthday Party, and Showed Me Who My True Friends Are

Watch a video of 5-year-old Michael frolicking with puppy Hudson, which was the trailer for our first book:

 

 

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