‘Dewey Bob’ author visits Spokane
Dewey Bob Crockett was born out of a fascination with a raccoon video found on YouTube and a picture of a pair of pants from a magazine.
Judy Schachner, best known for her “Skippyjon Jones” books, published her story about a little raccoon who likes to collect – buttons, experiences, friends and more – earlier this month. This weekend, she’ll be in Spokane and Moscow for readings and book signings.
“You can get very comfortable doing the same thing over and over again and I just always like to take a little break from Skippy every once in a while,” Schachner said.
“One day I had been watching a YouTube video of a raccoon obsessively hugging a cat and it was mesmerizing.”
She said she thought to herself, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to develop a character who was sort of an obsessive compulsive raccoon who’s very, very good at repurposing trash?”
And when she started her “character bible,” a journal that was the foundation of the “Dewey Bob” book, on the first page she glued a picture of an old-fashioned pair of corduroy pants she’d cut from a magazine.
As she kept adding to the pages of her character bible, she kept going back to the first one, adding a background and raccoons. And that page eventually became the beginning of the book.
The illustrations in “Dewey Bob” have layers of details. Illustrations are drawn and painted with pieces of maps and pictures of things like buttons, faucets and hanks of thread glued on. Dialogue is sometimes written on bubbles cut from notebook paper.
“I thought collage would be a wonderful way to express the idea of collecting bits and pieces of things,” she said. “In making the book, I was collecting things just right along with Dewey.”
Schachner said she wants to create books that children want to return to.
“I really feel strongly about creating books that children want to go back to, books that they want to have read to them again and again, books that have a lot to look at.”
During her reading, she’ll talk about her writing process and her life – and her pets who have inspired so many of her books.
And she hopes that others are inspired to tell their own stories after meeting her and hearing her story – she grew up very poor; her mother died when she was very young; she failed many classes in school.
“It’s great for kids to see somebody that had a tough beginning end up with such a happy ending – kind of a fairy tale life – because of my imagination.”
Kimberly Lusk
Spokane: 10 a.m. Saturday at the Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave. $3 suggested donation for adults, free for children. To have a book signed, please bring an Auntie’s receipt for a Schachner book. (509) 838-0206.
Moscow: 1 p.m. Sunday, Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, 508 S. Main St. $5/adults, $1/children, tickets available at BookPeople, 521 S. Main St. (208)
882-4127