A Summer Adventure for Carl

By Sally Lodge, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 5/29/2008

As the warm weather approaches and folks hatch vacation plans, one resourceful canine is already having fun in the sun. Alexandra Day’s beloved Rottweiler returns in Carl’s Summer Vacation, just out from Farrar, Straus & Giroux with a 100,000-copy first printing. In his latest escapade, Carl and his charge Madeleine sneak away from the hammock (where they are supposed to be napping) to pick blackberries, dash through the sprinkler and join in a baseball game.

The idea for this story sprang from a brainstorming session between the author and Margaret Ferguson, co-publisher and editorial director of Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers, who has edited every Carl title except the first (Good Dog, Carl, which Green Tiger Press published in 1985). “We decided that it would be nice to have two books based on seasons, since Margaret knows I like to paint weather,” Day recalls. The author is now working on a winter-themed companion to Carl’s Summer Vacation, currently scheduled for fall 2009 publication.

Ferguson, who notes that people constantly contact the publisher with suggestions for what Carl should do next, believes that the seasonal angles are a good fit for the dog—and for young readers. “It seemed to me that children and dogs like to go on vacation and they like to have fun in the snow,” she says. “And we also felt that the seasonal themes offered a lot of visual opportunities and near misses that could be captured in the art. In Carl’s Summer Vacation, there is something for everyone—fireworks, adventures on a lake, picnics—things that say summer and that many people can relate to.”

Day’s own family’s summer vacation—and her own Rottweiler—inspired the setting of her summer tale. “Our family took a cottage on the Oregon coast one summer, and I used a good deal of the photos I took and the sketches I did on that vacation while doing this art,” she says. “And we live in Seattle on Lake Washington, and our dog often goes swimming there, so that also inspired me. I use my surroundings all the time in my art.”

Alexandra Day.

The Carl books have sold more than 3.5 million copies for FSG and clearly have captured the hearts of adults as well as youngsters. Day believes her Carl stories appeal to these two groups on different levels. Adults are drawn to Carl, she says, “because of an instinctive desire for humans and animals to understand one another and to feel that we are all of a continuum. We all want the peaceable kingdom.” Yet children, she adds, “don’t need to be reminded that dogs and humans can communicate. They automatically believe in the peaceable kingdom. They tell me they like the Carl books because they think it’s funny that the dog and baby get away with so much. And they also like the fact that Carl is such a good caretaker.”

Ferguson, who says that Carl has even been likened to Mary Poppins, observes that children respond to these tales “because Madeline and Carl are on their own, doing some things that it is probably best her parents aren’t aware of, but children know that Madeleine is safe with Carl. It is a wonderful secret, and who wouldn’t love the idea of a dog as a babysitter?”

And Carl is apparently as much of a crowd pleaser in real life as he is on the page. When promoting her books, Day travels with the current “Carl,” her fourth Rottweiler that has posed as this book character since his publishing debut. Ferguson comments that FSG staffers “always argue about who is going to help take care of Carl when he travels to conventions with us.” This weekend, Carl will attend BEA with Day. “He is a very social dog and he can work a crowd,” says the author. “He is always a big hit.”

Does Day ever resent being overshadowed by this four-legged celebrity? “Not at all,” she says. “I am delighted to have him be my front man.”

Carl’s Summer Vacation by Alexandra Day. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $12.95, 978-0-374-31085-1