By Laura Backes
Illustrated by Ken Gamage
Look out! Look out!
Here comes the tail!
The wagging, wiggling, waving tail.
It topples the tables
And knocks over chairs.
It pushes my sister down the stairs.
Hide quick! Hide quick!
Here comes the tongue!
The slurpy, sticky, sloppy tongue.
It slathers my ears
And slobbers my nose.
When I'm eating a cookie, it drools on my toes.
Run fast! Run fast!
Here come the paws!
The pouncing, pushing, poking paws.
They open my door
And bounce on my bed.
They leave mucky mud-prints all over my head.
Be quiet. Be quiet.
The tongue's slowing down.
The tail's stopped twirling.
Paws stay on the ground.
He's snuggled beside me.
His head's on my lap.
I love my dog best when he's taking a nap.
Laura Backes has been part of the children's book publishing field since 1986. She's worked at some of New York's top publishing houses in publicity (Ballantine Books) and subsidiary rights (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), as a literary agent (Goodman Associates and later with The Backes Agency), and as a freelance editor for small presses and self-published authors. Since 1990 Laura has helped educate countless aspiring authors on the craft of writing for children as publisher of Children's Book Insider: The Newsletter for Children's Authors (see www.write4kids.com for more information). In October 2000, Laura formed Children's Authors' Bootcamp, an intensive two-day workshop on writing fiction for children, which she teaches throughout the country with author Linda Arms White (see www.WeMakeWriters.com for more information). Laura is also the author of Best Books for Kids Who (Think They) Hate to Read from Prima Publishing/Random House, and has had articles on writing published in Writer's Digest and The Writer magazines.
After receiving his degree in Interpretive Illustration from Sheridan College (Ontario, Canada), Ken Gamage began his career working as a Color key Artist for the Nelvana Ltd. animated series, George Shrinks as well as an in-house Graphic Artist for the National Post Newspaper on weekends. He currently works exclusively as the sole owner and illustrator of Sparklfish Illustration, located on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia with representation from American Artists Representatives, Inc. He has previously worked with such clients as Disney Publishing, Muchmusic/City TV and The UTNE Reader.
To learn more about Ken, please visit www.sparklfish.com.
If you wish to contact Ken, he can be reached at
Tel:1-866 886-6522/604-740-7217
Fax: 604-648-8804
E-mail: Kengamage@sparklfish.com
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