What's on Your Holiday Wish List?

We can’t believe it’s that time of year again! December sure snuck up on us, just as it did on all of you I am sure!

It’s that time of year where I start to gather fun gift ideas for friends and family, and of course I try to recommend our book The Toothless Puppy to anyone with young ones! But I also wanted to share some other Children’s books that we absolutely adore, and that you should definitely add to your list!

1) The Toothless Puppy: A Tale of Differences

(Ok we’re a little bit biased here, but we would love for you to give our book as a gift! If you are local to Seattle, send us an e-mail at: info@ashleyalmon.com and I’d be happy to sign it for you!)

2) Wheedle at the Needle

We just love this book, and has a nice PNW twist! Such a fun read!

Deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest lives a quiet old creature named the Wheedle. When humans move into his forests, bringing their loud city noises, Wheedle flees to the rocky peaks of Mount Rainier, and then to the very tip-top of Seattle's Space Needle.

3) The Runaway Bunny

This is such a classic! I remember reading this as a child, and I just love the imagery! This book is celebrating 75 years!

4) Giraffes Can’t Dance

We just love the message of this book, and it falls directly in line with the lesson in our book The Toothless Puppy: A Tale of Differences!

Giraffes Can't Dance is a touching tale of Gerald the giraffe, who wants nothing more than to dance. With crooked knees and thin legs, it's harder for a giraffe than you would think. Gerald is finally able to dance to his own tune when he gets some encouraging words from an unlikely friend.

5) If Animals Kissed Goodnight

This is such a sweet story, and perfect for bedtime!

In a sweet, bedtime chat a mom and her little one wonder what it would be like if animals kissed good night. What would it be like? A wet kiss from a dog, a slow kiss from a sloth? Can you imagine?!

Thanks Bloggers!

Hi everyone!

Hope y'all have been having an amazing summer! Things have been busy over here at Dog Haus Publishing! My mother, Karen and I are continuing to get the word out about our book, THE TOOTHLESS PUPPY: A TALE OF DIFFERENCES and the feedback we have received has been phenomenal! 

I wanted to share with you this great review we received from the site FROG ON A BLOG! 

https://frogonablog.net/2017/07/12/my-view-book-review-the-toothless-puppy-by-karen-and-ashley-almon/

Frog on a Blog writes:

Like most puppies, Campbell is energetic, playful, and happy. But one day, she discovers she is missing a tooth. Right away, her mind swirls with questions: Did I lose my tooth? If I find it, can I put it back? Why can’t I be like the other dogs who have all of their teeth? Campbell worries she won’t fit in because she’s different. So she sets off to look for her missing tooth. But she’ll need help from her friends to find what she’s looking for. And maybe what she seeks isn’t really her tooth after all, but rather acceptance, reassurance, and love.

Even though the story is about a puppy, we can all relate to Campbell’s problem, can’t we? Think back to when we were kids. At some point we began to notice our differences–in how we looked, dressed, spoke, etc.–compared to other kids. But we didn’t want to be different. We wanted to be like our friends and peers, whom we sometimes perceived as being better than us. Like Campbell, being different made us feel self-conscious. We didn’t want to stand out. We wanted to fit it. We didn’t know that our differences made us unique, made us special. If we knew then what we know now, many of us, myself included, would perhaps have been much more confident.

Books like The Toothless Puppy can help kids today. Told gently, with lovable, colorful animal characters, the story assures children that it’s okay, even great, to be different.

Big thanks to Frog on a Blog for reading!

Spring Event: Visual Presentation + Talk Back. May 20th at The Pocket Theatre in Seattle

Ever since the launch of our first book, The Toothless Puppy: A Tale of Differences, we have been busier than a family of bees, and we absolutely love it! It is so rewarding to give children and families a great story. It’s nice to know that our audiences enjoy the book just as much as we enjoyed writing it!

One event in particular that we are incredibly excited about is coming up in the spring—on Saturday, May 20th, at The Pocket Theatre in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood we will be doing a live reading of our book followed by a talk back about our creative process. We’ll be telling the story and presenting each page on a projector for all to see, sharing our story boards, talking about each step in the making of the book, and of course sharing the final product! We’ll have lots of treats, as well, and of course children are highly recommended to attend!

We hope you can join us in this celebration!