Friday Fiction | Introducing The Pet Sitters.

Today we are introducing a new children’s series “Pet Sitters”.

We will be getting to know a little more about this series and the authors.

Firstly can you tell us a little about yourselves?

Many of your readers may already know us. We’re Penny Reeve and Cecily Paterson. Between us we have had more than 30 books published, including some award winning titles each, but this is our first series working together.

We currently live in Sydney, Australia but both grew up as third culture kids. We’ve both experienced trying to get reluctant readers to read, enjoy the company of dogs, are learning to appreciate cats and neither one of us likes cleaning house! Oh, and one of us is older than the other but we’re not telling who.

This series looks interesting can you tell us a little about the books?

The Pet Sitters books are a brand new series of chapter books for 5-9 year olds. They’re about two best friends who would love to have pets but can’t. What they can do however, is pet sit and the first pet they care for is Gus, a grumpy opinionated cat who can talk!

Over the course of the books, the girls pet sit a variety of animals from an guinea pig that is occasionally invisible to a lizard that sneezes glitter. The stories are fun, fast paced and funny too.

I love the fact you have a grumpy cat called Gus, was he fun to write?

He has been wonderfully fun to write!

I think part of it is that his personality contrasts so strongly with the easy going, enthusiastic and happy nature of the two girls. He’s a walking, talking opportunity for them to demonstrate unconditional love and acceptance. Of course, most of the chaos in the stories is created by Gus – which makes it fun to write from a character motivation point of view. But he also ends up being the one that saves the day, sometimes getting himself in some rather embarrassing situations as a result. It’s been enormously fun to imagine what he’ll get up to and what he’ll say next.

What was it like working collaboratively to write, publish and produce these stories?

It’s been a lot of fun, but has also stretched us out of our comfort zone. We opted to co-write each and every story; which means we literally plan the stories together and then write them, chapter a turn. It took a while for our writing styles to balance out. One of us tends to write more flowery language, the other is far more to the point (we’ll let your readers guess who is who). We decided to split the publisher roles between the two of us according to our skills and experience. And the collaborative experience has also extended to how we work with our illustrator- the amazing Lisa Flanagan who took a leap of faith and embarked on our project with us – and Suzanne Ellis, our audiobook narrator who God sent our way at just the right time. I think we have both been encouraged by the way God has brought us together on this project despite the ups and downs of 2020.

What do you hope children will take away from reading these books?

These books are first and foremost about the love of reading! We deliberately kept clear of heavy handed morals and focused primarily on the joy of story. We wanted to produce a series of books that adults could trust in terms of values and that kids would enjoy. To support reluctant readers we prioritised making these books available in a variety of formats, print, ebook and audiobooks. We hope young readers will end each book with a contented sigh and a renewed enthusiasm for trying up another book.

Will there be more books in the series?

Yes! The Pet Sitters: Ready for Anything collection is just the start of Cassie, Lina and Gus’ adventures. The second collection is already underway with plans for a third. As long as there are pets for the girls to care for, chaos for Gus to create and readers keen to follow the mayhem, we’ll happily keep writing.

And finally where can we find more information on the series?

The best place to go is the Puddle Dog Press website. www.puddledogpress.com. Make sure you sign up to our newsletter for pre-release news and follow the Puddle Dog Press Facebook page.