Interview with children's author Deb Westgate-Silva

(This is an edited version of the post that appeared on my blog, Focus on Fiction:
https://www.nancychristie.com/focuson....)

I had the opportunity to interview Debra Westgate-Silva about her latest book, the children’s picture book Daisy's Near CATastrophe: A Children's Book Based on the True Tale of a Missing Kitten and the K9 Team That Helped to Rescue Her.

It's a tale of a lost kitten finding her way home who gets a little help from a special dog trained to find missing pets. And who can resist a story about pets?

Here are some excerpts from the interview. You can read the full interview here: https://www.nancychristie.com/focuson...

Your children’s book, Daisy’s Near CATastrophe, is based on actual events of a missing kitten and highlights an amazing service that dogs perform. Tell us about that. What’s the story behind the book?

Daisy’s Near CATastrophe is based on my nephew’s kitten, Daisy, who really can open doors. When the family went on vacation, they boarded the pets at kennels. The first night Daisy was there, she escaped.
The kennel owners felt horrible and hired a K9 tracker, a dog trained to find missing pets.

I’d never heard of this before, and I was captivated. I immediately thought children would find it fascinating too and recognized its story potential. But I knew I couldn’t write about it unless Daisy’s story had a happy ending in real life. And it did, thanks to Harper, the German Shepherd pet tracker, and her handler Sam.

When these events happened, you immediately recognized the potential for a children’s story. What was the creative process like? How did you take the actual events and craft a story from them?

The creative process was a weaving together of actual events with those essential story elements, while working within the structure of a picture book. Most traditional children’s picture books are 32-pages in length, and that includes the title page, copyright page, dedication, etc. The word count typically ranges between 200-800 words. There are limited page spreads and words in which to tell the story.

Some people think children’s stories must be quick and easy to write, but it actually took me about two years. I played with different structures and points of view, and it went through multiple drafts with feedback from critique partners, teachers, editors, and the agent I was working with at the time.

What do you hope readers take away from your book?

Ooh, I’d have to say I hope readers have a couple of take-aways. A key take-away is a renewed appreciation for dogs and their remarkable abilities. Harper alone has reunited 700-800 lost pets with their families. I hope children, and even adults, are fascinated by this.

I also hope young readers come away with a better understanding of what friendship truly means. How do you recognize a good friend? How do you be a good friend? What do you do if someone isn’t a good friend? There are lots of teachable moments in the book, and I’ve created a full curriculum, available on my website, to highlight some of them. Some of the lessons are literacy-based, and others focus on social-emotional skills, like friendship and communication styles.

Last, I hope the theme of empowerment resonates with readers. At one point in the story, Daisy feels hopeless–it’s her “dark night of the soul”—and she begins to question everything. One of her questions triggers her to remember that she’s a kitten who can open doors, and kittens who open doors do not give up. This reminder restores her spirit and compels her to recommit to her quest to find Bear. As soon as she trusts herself again, she knows what she needs to do. I hope this moment of empowerment resonates with readers of all ages.