Henri and the Magnificent Snort follows a French bulldog who moves to a new place, and instead of finding friends, he is bullied for his unique snort. What was the inspiration for your story?

The inspiration for Henri and the Magnificent Snort comes from two true stories, one human and one dog.

The first story is my own childhood experiences with bullying when I moved to a new school for middle school. It was such a hard experience for me, and I wanted to create the book to help children and older children (aka adults) who have had life experiences that have caused them to question their own lovability. In the book, I tell my story through the lens of Henri and the other dogs. The things he experiences and the feelings that he feels, all mirror my own life experiences. It is a “dog’s version” of my story. I wanted to illustrate what happened to me using dogs because I felt that it was an approachable and palatable way for kids to understand bullying, and I wanted them to see the innocence and lovability of all of the dogs involved, and thus see their own lovability.

The second true story that inspired this book is the story of Henri. Henri is my former French bulldog. Henri is also a dog celebrity, known as Henri Le Frenchie. (His Instagram account @henrilefrenchie currently has 67K followers and he has been in newspapers, the Huffington Post, magazines, and on TV.) The book captures his uniqueness, his wonderful personality, his loving character, and his magnificent snort. It also follows the real story of his life, which included moving with me from New York City, where I was in graduate school and where he spent his puppyhood, to San Diego, California. You can also see pictures of Henri in the back of the book.

What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?

I wanted the book to be a fun way for children (and adults) to learn important messages about kindness, belonging, celebrating differences, and self-love. I wanted for people of all ages to close the book feeling touched and uplifted and reminded of their own magnificence and lovability.

I made it a rhyming book to add playfulness and humor, and to make it a joy to read out loud. It has a fun rhythm and it also helps to tickle the brain and get you thinking about what word might come next. The rhymes also helped to shape the story.

There are many themes within Henri and the Magnificent and it provides a groundwork for lots of discussion topics within a classroom or within a family or within friendships. It can be the start of conversations about moving, starting a new school, friendship, bullying, standing up for others, negative and positive self-talk, kindness, inclusivity, celebrating differences, self-image, self-esteem, reaching out to others for help, bravery, expressing yourself, and the importance of being yourself. It gives you a path to explore so many different topics with kids (or adults).

It is also a fun sweet tale of a cute, snorting French bulldog! It can also just be enjoyed as a story, and the messages and good feelings can subtly sink in in the process.

The art in this book is fantastic; readers can really grasp the emotions Henri is feeling. What was the art collaboration process like with illustrator Hannah Farr?

Thank you. I completely agree, illustrator Hannah Farr is extraordinary, and her art is fantastic! All of her art in the book is hand painted acrylic. It is all so special, so high quality, and so different from so much of what I’ve seen as the current trend in so many current children’s books. And she has a way with painting animals that is just magical. She captures their essence. It’s so incredibly beautiful.

Hannah Farr lives in Cornwall, England, and I am in Solana Beach, California, so our collaboration has taken place over the years from 5,353 miles apart! I love that life brought us together even though we live so far away. Our process was very organic. I came up with the story and what I thought I wanted for the illustrations and then we would go back and forth with brainstorming and sketches and tweaking and perfecting. She was beyond wonderful to have on my creative team. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better illustrator; she was better than perfect. I feel so lucky. It makes me laugh because I’ve been looking through our past messages and seeing the original ideas that I would send her, which are like little labeled bubble figures with ears, and then she would turn them into the beautiful illustrations that exist in the book today.

And beyond her amazing art, she is just such a wonderful person. She is so talented, kind, creative, and so incredibly easy to work with and made it enjoyable. And she was so patient with me as kept adding more and more dogs to the book. (A fun side fact about the book is that almost all of the dogs in it are based on dogs from real life. They are the dogs of family, friends, and Instagram friends. Hannah has four of her own dogs painted in the book as well.) Hannah would even do things like ask me if it was ok for her to take another shot at a painting that I had already told her I liked, just to see if she could do it better. It was mind-blowingly wonderful to work with her. I honestly can’t say enough good things about Hannah.

Will this book be the start of a series, or are you working on a different story?

I have been asked that quite a bit lately! I currently have ideas for future children’s books, as well as ideas for nonfiction writing that I would like to do. We will see what will blossom… But I have no doubts that Henri will be a part of my future writing! He inspired and continues to inspire me in so many ways. His magnificence and love are neverending.

Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Book Instagram | Henri’s Instagram | Facebook