How Lucky Am I?

I'm so lucky to have readers who write wonderful reviews like this!!!

My favorite parts:

"I'm begging you to read it."

"It's addictive. Pick it up, never put it down."

Thanks so much for this wonderful review!!!

Cleaning Up My Act

I've been cleaning out my office, purging old, useless STUFF.

Every now and then, I come across a long-forgotten nugget.

For instance, yesterday I found a letter I received from the Italian

publisher of How to Steal a Dog, outlining the changes they were making when translating the text from English to Italian.

Here are some of the more interesting ones:

We changed the following Mama's action because in our opinion it's not a good example for young readers:

p. 63: "The bread we had in the milk crate in the trunk of the car had turned green with mold and Mama tossed it out the window." We changed to "...Mama threw it in the bin."

We think it's better to eliminate all references to religion:

p. 138: We eliminated "My other car's a broom. Honk if you love Jesus." [note: That was a bumper sticker.]

In our books, we normally try to not refer to smoking and beer. [editorial comment from me: Um, I've BEEN to Italy. No smoking or beer? Maybe I went to the wrong Italy.]

p. 31: "The man who had been working on his car was sitting in a lawn chair smoking a cigarette." We changed to "...was sitting in a lawn chair drinking a soda."

p. 31: We eliminated the following line: "I didn't look at the man when I passed him, but I caught a whiff of cigarette smoke."

p. 45: We eliminated the following line: "Cigarette butts were scattered on the floor beneath it."

p. 45: We substituted "beer bottles" with "bottles."


We would like to change some words because for us they are too hard:

p. 37 and 88: We eliminated the word "idiot."

p. 58: We changed "dern world" to "stupid world."

p. 119: "Mama would kill us," we changed to "Mama would punish us."

p. 138: "I like to died when I saw" was changed to "I like to sink." [editorial comment from me: Huh?]

How to Steal a Dog Movie Premiere

So, the movie premiere is TONIGHT in South Korea

and I'm still trying to decide what to wear.

And just in case you need to watch the trailer just one more time:

It's right here. 

And in case you don't know how excited I am:

A great Skype visit

I had a great Skype visit with 4th-grade students at Fort Worth Academy.

This is what greeted me when I first logged on:

Love that!

They had great questions and one student showed me her amazing artwork:

 

Their teacher, Ms. Bonin, sent me these cool pictures of her students reading on the playground.

 

Thank you, Fort Worth Academy!

How to Steal a Dog Movie Trailer!

Here it is, y'all!

The trailer for the Korean film of How to Steal a Dog.

How to Steal a Dog Movie Pics AGAIN (but these are great)

The cast and director

How to Steal a Dog Movie Pics

The cast and director of the Korean film, HOW TO STEAL A DOG, being interviewed;

I Love My Job

I get a lot of letters from readers.

I read and love each and every one of them.

And every once in a while, I get a special letter....

...one that reminds me that what I do is important and appreciated and might make a difference to someone.

Recently, I received one of those letters.

With the permission of the sender, I'm printing it here in its entirety.

I love my job.

 

Dear Barbara O’Connor,

  

Growing up I noticed that I had trouble reading. I was born dyslexic and so I had trouble understanding how to comprehend the words that I was reading, so not long after the second grade I decided I was not going to read unless I really needed to.

It didn’t take long after I made the decision to not read unless I found a good enough reason that of course I found one. My older brother had a dog named Roscoe. He was my brother’s best friend they did everything together, but one night Roscoe went outside without my brother and he got hit by a car passing down our street very fast. My brother stayed up for days so sad and he refused to go to school. Soon after, my mother asked me if I knew anything that could help him cheer up, and after thinking about it for a while I couldn’t really think of anything until I went on a class trip to the library and my librarian asked me what kind of books I was interested in and I immediately thought of my brother and I told my librarian that I wanted to LOOK at books about dogs so maybe I could show him cool pictures of dogs that looked like Roscoe to cheer him up. 

My librarian looked up the key word Dog and the only book that she found in what was supposed to be my reading level was your book How to steal a dog. Without even opening it I came up with the perfect idea to cheer up my brother.

I figured that your book would teach me how to get or steal a dog for my brother so he would not be sad anymore (I want to remind you that I was only nine years old and didn’t fully think through what I was planning on doing.) So I found the perfect reason to read my very first big girl book as I called them (with chapters). I figured that if I skimmed through it I could figure out fairly quickly what I wanted to know. 

So I started flipping through the pages and I couldn’t find a list of ways to get a dog, so I figured I would sort of start reading the book to find out where in the book it gave me the steps that I was looking for. Of course I could not find them so then I thought I should just try to actually read it and maybe I could figure out what I wanted to know.

After I started reading the book I became fascinated with Georgina and her family. I guess I could say that I sort of felt connected to Georgina and I became interested in her and her family. So I started reading the book because I was interested in it instead of my original meaning.

After I finished the book I was so proud of myself for actually reading a book that didn’t have just pictures in it. I bragged to my family and friends and even teachers. I was so interested in your book that I wanted to read more of it, I was sad that the book was over and that I would never get to know what had happened to Georgina and her family after the book ended. I tried to Google books that had similarities with your book and I couldn’t find anything that seemed fascinating to me. So I never really read another chapter book again after your book.

I enjoyed your book very much. When I was in my English class at school I was telling a story to my friend about how I would like to become an author when I got older but I thought that I would be a hypocrite if I wrote books but did not read them because of my difficulties with words. 

While I was telling my story my instructor, Ms. White overheard me and asked what I was talking about. After I explained everything that I was saying before, I told her that I have only read one real book my whole life and that I loved it. When I told her that the book was How to steal a dog she immediately knew what book I was talking about and remembered that her mentor was your best friend and told me she was going to try to get a hold of her mentor through Facebook and tell her about my story and she was hoping to get in contact with you.

  

Despite my challenges with reading I am actually very good with writing and grammar. I just have trouble while reading words because the letters mix match and change up and the words seem to look different. 

I’m not really sure why I let it defy me so much. I guess it could be because it seems like a good excuse to not try hard enough or to be lazy. I don’t know, but I’m guessing that since I thought of those assumptions that maybe they could be true, maybe.

I am so enthusiastic about writing you this letter. I really hope you find my liking of your book interesting. I hope you can find time to write me back with everything you have going on.

Thank you for your time,

How to Steal a Dog Movie Pics

The movie of How to Steal a Dog premieres in South Korea on December 18. 

 

Here are some photos from the movie:

How to Steal a Dog Movie Trailer

Check it out, y'all!!!

The trailer for the Korean movie of How to Steal a Dog.

So excited!

(And this is just a "teaser." Full trailer still to come.)

Things I Love Thursday

I love teachers who do things like this:

Fourth grade teacher, Saul Ruiz, at Carver Academy Elementary in

Amarillo, Texas, organized a wonderful project with his students after reading How to Steal a Dog.

"You have inspired us to take our eyes off ourselves and realize that someone else always has it worse than we do," Mr. Ruiz told me. 

 

"We are teaming up with a local homeless shelter for mothers and their children.  We are making 'After Dinner Bags' for the kids who show up to these shelters.  Just like Georgina, they sometimes just arrive with a plastic bag full of only a few of their belongings.  We are making bags full of snacks and activities for children to do after dinner…the most boring part of the night for kids at the shelter." 

How great is that?!

And I love that they are calling this wonderful activity Project Georgina in honor of the main character.

High five to Mr. Ruiz and his students!!

Shout-Out to Oakview Middle School

All students at Oakview Middle School in Lake Orion, Michigan, read How to Steal a Dog.

Media specialist Alicia Pearce sent me these great photos of some of the activities and discussions surrounding the book.

Bulletin Board Display

Interview Questions

Ms. McGran's class

Students discussing the book

Thank you, Oakview!!!

 

How to Steal a Dog Movie Pics

A few more pics from the filming of How to Steal a Dog in South Korea

Mookie with director Kim Sung-ho

That face!! Love.....