Smarty Books No. 6: Mogie
Cozy up with a pup who's making a difference in Mogie: The heart of the house, by Kathi Appelt
Welcome back to Smarty Books, a monthly newsletter featuring smart and sweet picture books to inspire young readers. (5 minute read)
Our book today is Mogie: The heart of the house by Kathi Appelt. I don’t cry easily when I read, but Mogie gets me every time! Love and care overflow in this story.
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Summary—Based on a True Story
Mogie: The heart of the house tells two intersecting stories—the story of Mogie the labradoodle and the story of Gage, a child who is unstoppable until he’s derailed by a serious illness. Mogie the labradoodle is not like his rule-following littermates—he’s too rowdy for all the jobs he tries until he winds up at the Ronald McDonald House where he meets Gage. Through Mogie’s care and presence, Gage remembers the things he used to do and dreams about doing them again. Mogie helps Gage to recover, and Gage is able to return to his normal life. Mogie finds his purpose at the Ronald McDonald House and goes on to help many other children.
Why Mogie is great
Mogie is an excellent text for teaching kids that there is more than one way to do something, like help others. Mogie tries many ways of helping people before he winds up at the Ronald McDonald House. If he were a human, he might think there was something wrong with him—Why can’t I be like everyone else? Why are these jobs not working for me? Mogie perseveres to find his fit. He cares for others in a different way, and it’s very meaningful and powerful.
Mogie is a model of empathy, compassion and presence in action. Caring for children battling illness is a rare topic in picture books.
This text could be used as a springboard to talk about serving others and what opportunities are available for service. How can we help others who are having a hard time in our school, neighborhood or community?
The writing—Mogie is a delight to read because the text is fun. It uses repetition and lots of fun adjectives to describe the characters. For example, Gage is called “a ball-throwing, race-running, back-flipping boy.”
Author Interview
Kathi Appelt is the author of Mogie: The heart of the house. She shares the inspiration for Mogie below. Kathi is the author of over fifty books, and it’s a huge honor to have her as a guest!
Sarah W: What was the genesis of Mogie: The Heart of the House? I think you mention a bit about this at the end of the book. Did you get to meet the real Mogie?
Kathi Appelt: I had an acquaintance who was a volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House in Houston, and she told me about the house dog, Mogie. They were hoping that someone would write a picture book about him and contacted me. So I made an appointment with Mogie and his people and the rest is history. As soon as I met him, I knew I had to write about him.
Sarah W: What did you enjoy most about working on Mogie?
Kathi Appelt: I loved meeting the families and kids who were staying in the House, and watching how Mogie interacted with each of them. They all had stories to tell me about Mogie. He made them each feel special.
Sarah W: Can you talk a little bit about your process of writing an animal character?
Kathi Appelt: I do a lot of research on the animals that I write about. This includes details about territory, food, habits, migration, natural enemies, etc. When I can, I talk with the experts to be sure that my animal characters are actually “in character.” For example, it would be out of character for an alligator to live in a palm tree. It might be funny, but it wouldn’t be representative of alligators. A sea gull, on the other hand, might consider a palm tree as a perfect nesting place. Even though my books feature talking animals, and they’re definitely figures of my imagination, it’s still important to me that I give my young readers characters who are true to themselves. In other words, they have to have what I call the “ish-factor.” If I were to write a bear character, it might be talkative, but it would still need to be bear-ish.
Sarah W: Mogie was published in 2014, and you’ve done a lot of books since then. What recent or future project are you especially excited about?
Kathi Appelt: I love my most recent novel, Once Upon a Camel. The main character is an old camel with creaky knees, who believes she can save the day by telling stories. She reminds me of myself.
More about Kathi
Kathi Appelt is the New York Times best-selling author of more than fifty books for children and young adults. Her first novel, The Underneath, was named a National Book Award Finalist, a Newbery Honor Book, and the PEN USA Literature for Children Award. Her most recent novel, Once Upon a Camel, illustrated by Caldecott medalist, Eric Rohmann, was recently named to the Texas Bluebonnet Master List, and received a starred review by BookList.
In addition to writing, Ms. Appelt has served on the faculty in the Masters of Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She and her husband Ken live in College Station, TX with three adorable cats, Mingus, Chica and Ace. For more information, check her website: www.kathiappelt.com.
Mogie: The heart of the house was published in 2014 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers. It was featured in the Wall Street Journal.
August News
BIG NEWS! I just signed a contract for my first English book for adults. It’s a memoir-in-verse tentatively titled First-Time Mom. I’m super excited! I’ve been working on it on and off for five years. It’s going to be published with Wipf and Stock’s Resource imprint.
More to come on this later. In the meantime, if you’re not familiar with the memoir-in-verse format, I recommend Margarita Engle’s two verse memoirs Enchanted Air and Soaring Earth, both YA (young adult), as well as Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming (MG—middle grade). All three are excellent coming-of-age books.
Happy reading until we meet again!
—Sarah White
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