"A Beach Day For Hannah" is Here!

Mom's been hauling boxes of books around all day. My new book, "A Beach Day For Hannah" finally arrived and it sure has lots of cute pictures of me playing on the beaches of Carmel - I bird watch, I swim, I build dog bone castles, and I do some surprising other things that you'll have to check out in your own copy of the book... I don't want to give away all of my various secret talents! Proceeds from this book will benefit Boys & Girls Clubs, too.

Mom's been working on this new book, reading to kids, looking for a good publisher, and taking care of me (and doing her day job). I had a few weeks time out for girl stuff, if you know what I mean. Mom and Dad needed a time out, too, so they took a fun trip to France and saw lots of artwork and goofed off while Lucy and I lazed around the house. They said it was nice not to be woken up by dogs in the morning for over a week. Hey, a dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do when the dog needs to doo... and we's gots to eats, too!

Mom and Dad are going to peddle books at the Furry Scurry in Washington Park/Denver on Saturday. Then Mom is going to head out to Gettysburg, PA next week 'cuz there's a Bernese Mountain Dog Specialty show and she thinks lots of folks there might want to look at fab pictures of me and take home a book and a cutesy stuffed replica of yours truly. You oughta go see her standing out there if you can! She might need some moral support, if you know what I mean...

Hey, by the way, I got a decent review on my Snow Day Book by Kirkus Reviews - the toughest reviewers around. They said, "With a cute hero and gorgeous vistas depicted in clear, bright photos, young readers will happily curl up on a parent's lap to see Hannah's antics." They said some other stuff, too, but that was the bottom line.

Love and Fun on the Beach,
Hannah

Hannah’s North Shore Adventure

Mom said that she had a blast last week on the North Shore of Chicago. She read “A Snow Day For Hannah” to all kinds of kids in a gazillion places including The Kenilworth Club, Willowbrook Elementary, Joseph Sears School (her Alma Mater), Crow Island Elementary, and then at The Book Stall bookstore in Winnetka.

She said reading to the kids was tons and tons of fun and that they really, really liked seeing the

YouTube video of Lucy and I wrestling in the snow to that funny music. I guess they laughed at us a lot. We are kinda funny that way! We play really hard.

I couldn’t come with Mom to Illinois in real life like I usually do, being that she had to go on a plane and all to get there. She had a fakey substitute Hannah toy that makes me a little jealous. It doesn’t smell like a dog and it won’t wrestle with me, but I guess it’s pretty cute if I confess my true feelings. (Actually I’d love to tear it apart, but she won’t let me.)

I’m a little upset that I missed so much fun! She’s still talking about it, using a strange word I haven’t heard, “buzz.” Sounds like a busy bee to me. She hopes the Boys & Girls Clubs will make a little more money from those Chicagoland book sales.

She said I even got into some newspapers, and that’s the kinda stuff I really love. Little dogs like me need to be seen - and petted all the time, too. Big humans like to read newspapers. (I love to shred them up and use them for other naughty things.)

The little humans seem to like reading picture books with cute dogs (AKA ME) in them, and they really love to snuggle with the cutesy phony Hannahs while they read my book.

Mom said it snowed really, really, cool, huge, soft snowflakes one day while she was in Illinois – just in time to read the snow book. One kid was super creative and made a snowman like I did with dog biscuit eyes and nose! Maybe I’ve started a new trend in snowman fashions!!

Speaking of Hannahs, Mom went to visit the real first Hannah that I was named after. She’s a nice lady with a cool husband that Mom’s known since she was a kid. That man named my Mom “Peach” when she was a little tyke and she’s had that nickname ever since. Everybody, almost, calls her that now – at least the people she really likes.

Okay – Mom says I’m going on too long today, but it was a big week. Quality Books wants to help her sell to Libraries and we got a decent Kirkus Review. She even sent “A Beach Day For Hannah” to the printer and it’s supposed to come out May 1st. Just imagine all the things I can do at the beach with all of my unusual talents!! You’ll have to wait and see…

Love coming from the Chi-town area!

Hannah

Hannah's First Review

Mom is doing back flips out there in the snow today! Our book got it's first review by The Midwest Book Review, and they said great things! Here it is:

"A Snow Day For Hannah" is a fantastic photo-journal of a day playing in snow in the life of a Bernese Mountain puppy named Hannah. With a story in verse and vivid color photos of Hannah frolicking in the snow, "A Snow Day For Hannah" appeals to all the senses. Children will feel the cold crisp tang of the snowy woods and slopes where Hannah gambols. They will see her sense with her fine nose that the storm is coming. After the storm, they will have such fun sliding on the sled and trying to talk to the snowman! In addition, children's enjoyment of the book is augmented by its focus. A portion of the profits from "A Snow Day for Hannah" are donated to Boys and Girls clubs. To enjoy learning more about the special breed of mountain dog breed that Hannah is, read "A Snow Day for Hannah" to children age 5 and up. A lovely set of note cards featuring the stunning photo portraits of Hannah in the snow also make a lovely gift for presentation."

The Midwest Book Review
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Diane Donovan, Editor

Thank you James and Diane! Love Hannah

Hannah's Prototype is Back!

Kids love my stuffed Hannah dog toy - it's just about the size I was when I was a puppy! - and guess what? (What?) Mom just got a whole shipment in just in time for Valentines Day! http://www.mountaindogbooks.com/store.html

With all those little hearts and daisies on my collar, it's a sweet little pup, just like me - Mom says I'm supposed to correct myself here - I really haven't been a good girl lately. I took revenge on my dad a few days ago and shredded his golf book, hid his loafers, messed with his blanket, and then really left a stinky mess for him deep into the carpet. I'm not sure he's going to give me a Valentine this year!

See, look at this cute kid, Connor - His mom says he reads my book two or three times a day and hangs

out with his Hannah, sleeps with it... can't get enough of that little dog!

It's snowing like all getout in Denver, and Lucy and I have a playdate this morning for some good snow romping and rolling. There's a couple of feet of the white stuff out there and that's our very most favorite favorite play toy! Hope you are enjoying some winter time fun too! If you haven't seen us playing in the snow yet, take a look at our video!

Love and white faces rolling in snow to you!
Hannah

PS - Mom apologizes for all the blatant marketing with meager disguise...

Hannah Visits Edith Teter

I'm not sure who Edith Teter was but she sure has a cool school! The oldest working school in Colorado they say. They're building a really nice new school, but this one had tons of character and so did the kids in Fairplay. They made a fab poster for me and it made Mom feel really happy, too. I did a great job of cleaning up all the snack scraps on the floor like I always do. Dog's gotta have a job you know!

Billy and Kristina from the Boys & Girls Club of South Park were there with us, too. They were really nice and helped out all day. I'm super glad proceeds of the book will benefit the kids at those Clubs!

Those students couldn't believe how much I'd grown up since those pictures were taken for "A Snow Day For Hannah." I'm almost 5 times the size I was a year ago. It's fun being a puppy and this big at the same time! And I sure did love all the attention and all the pets I got from those children. They were super nice to me and I hope I get to visit them again some day! I loved the mountains there, too.

Love from beautiful South Park Colorado, Hannah

Hannah and Her Sister Star in a New Movie

Hannah and her sister, Lucy, filmed their antics in the snow over New Years weekend (yes there was snow on the ground!)

Hold on, please, for two minutes of doggie amusement:
Watch Hannah's Video!
If you like it don't forget to "Like" it!

We sold over 1300 copies of "A Snow Day For Hannah" since Oct 15!! Thanks for all of your support. YOU helped us do this!!

Happy New Year and Best Wishes For Fresh Powder!
Love,
Hannah & Lucy

Hannah’s Happy Holiday Heart

Mom’s not particularly smart. You would have thought that after the yarn incident she would have closed the door to the temporary-Christmas-present-wrapping-room, but no. She left it wide open for the taking, and take did we! Hee, hee! Falalalala lalala la! Lucy and I had a hay day in there with the paper and the ribbon and those wrapping paper tubes (they’re the best to toss around). Mom bought a nice drawing book for her nephew, Andrew. It was sitting on a bench in there waiting for a wrap. I noticed the cat on the cover and couldn’t help but chew the book apart. It didn’t taste very good, but it was fun to put a hole in that cat. Mom was a bit irate when she saw what we had done. She said we were full of badness, but she was giggling, too. Good thing she’s about to have a holiday and Lucy and I are headed to Camp Beth Ryan. (We love hanging out with Beth. She’s a really cool dog sitter and her boyfriend, Steve, is real nice to us, too.)

But the best thing we’ve been doing lately is visiting more Boys and Girls Clubs! Man, oh, man do I love that! I think we’ve been to 14 Clubs in all so far, and five in the past week. We go in and everyone freaks out that I’m such a big dog now (with a puppy cranium). I get to strut around in my edelweiss harness and I pick up every crumb I can find, because I’m a chowhound and useful on clean up patrol. Mom’s been sporting an Austrian jacket that makes her look like she’s about to yodel, and she says she’s been a chowhound, too, celebrating December

in caloric fashion. It’s all very festive. The kids love petting me and laugh at the pictures of me when Mom reads the book. They’re pretty darn cute kids, I must say! One girl that didn’t have a dog said she had a pet hermit crab. I wonder if it likes to play with wrapping paper tubes and ribbon.

Mom says she’s ready for a little holiday break and a week away from my book, “A Snow Day For Hannah.” She thinks book sales might be nearing 1000 in 10 weeks and she’s happy about that, but a little pooped. Alamosa Public Radio interviewed her last week and the Vail Daily and Summit Daily are running articles about us this weekend. We’re in about 70 book & toy stores so far. Baker and Taylor placed a humongo order last week that made Mom skip around for a whole day, and another distributor, BooksWest, is going to carry the book, which made her smile a lot, too.

We're grateful for all the good things that have happened this year and the friends that have helped us along the way!!! Hope you have a bountiful holiday full of bowwows, bows, and boxes!

Love and holiday cheer,
Hannah

Carting & Caroling with the BMDCR

The Bernese Mountain Dog Club of the Rockies had a great gig last weekend called "Carting and Caroling." The decked out dogs were soooo cute and these carts are soooo cool! (We need to get one for book peddling - and maybe a penquin, too. It's the right colors after all.) And these guys had a great sense of humor, too. For example, here are some of the doggie lyrics to the carol, "White Christmas":

I'm dreaming of a dog biscuit
Tall as a house and twice as wide
Little toys that squeak
And kids that shriek
And huge bones made of rawhide.

Then there were tunes using lyrics like "yellow snow, yellow snow, yellow snow!"

Dad, of course, loves to sing songs, especially if the songs have funny lyrics. There were Berners toting

Berners, Berners celebrating in Christmas outfits, Berners hanging in Hanukkah hoopla (or were those Hannah-ka getups?) and lots of holiday cheer to go around. One dog howled through the whole thing. I'm not sure if he was singing or trying to get the people to stop their silly canine santa songs, but everyone was in a happy holiday mood, and very well behaved I must say!

Hope you're starting to get in the holiday spirit, and that you need lots of books for kids, too!

Mom thinks she's at about 600 "A Snow Day For Hannah" books sold in 2 months with more orders coming in, and apparently that ain't all bad!!

Love and cartfuls of holiday cheer!
Hannah

Hannah Spins a Yarn

It was super duper cold out today so Lucy and I were left inside while Mom and Dad went to work. Mom wasn't too happy with me when she got home. Not only was I hangin' real sweet on the couch, but I found her knitting and tore that yarn all apart. Boy was that a blast!! She yelled at me and called me a "feline." That didn't sound too good to me. She said I needed to do 100 hail marys and no bones for a week. She said I could have choked to death and kept ranting and raving on and on, bla, bla, bla.

But that scolding wasn't as bad as last week. We did this whole book thing in northern California - driving around peddling books. Lucy and I were pretty good hanging in the lap of luxury in the back of the Tahoe on our cushion thrones until we picked up Dad at the airport and got to Sacramento. Then I found some great smelling poop on the lawn next to the gas station and rolled in it. (We only had two more days of driving to go!) Boy was Mom on fire then!! Dad tried to squeegy that great poop off of me and Mom kept pouring water on me and saying a lot of bad words I'm not supposed to repeat.

But the trip was worthwhile. "A Snow Day For Hannah" is in about 60 book and toy stores now and we're running out of those cute little stuffed dogs that look like me with the edleweiss collars. And hey, the Follett Company contacted Mom unsolicited and said they want her to set up an account so that their library and school customers can buy the book. She was a lot happier about that than the poop roll. She danced around a lot and so Lucy and I danced with her.

Hope you don't need a sweater!
Love and yarn balls to you!! Hannah

Hannah Blocks Tai Chi Man

We've been peddling books through Utah, Nevada, and now we're at my favorite beach, Carmel (where we already shot "A Beach Day For Hannah" - 2nd in the series). Things are a little different out here in California. We were going on this great walk this morning on Carmel Beach, where they let the dogs run wild and free, my favorite thing! There were tons of great dogs to play with and Lucy and I found a dead seal to roll around in. Boy did we smell good and gross out Mom!!

But the highlight of the day was Tai Chi man. He was all peaceful, doing his graceful moves and along we came. Of course I can't ever resist running through someone's legs to get a pet! Boy was he surprised to see me there, the ying to his yang. We all had our energies flowing then! Mom wasn't too please that we disturbed this man's meditation, but he was laughing, so I think it was okay.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving full of free flowing spiritual well-being!

Love and Harmony, Hannah

PS - A Snow Day For Hannah is now available at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble!

Travels With Hannah

I traveled around the western part of Colorado last week with Mom and Julie Mordecai, Executive Director of the Colorado Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs. We all had a blast meeting kids, doing readings, and I especially liked all the attention I got. One little boy was so excited to see me he wet his pants (like I do sometimes when I see my folks after they've been away for awhile). Another boy said "I had a dog but someone killed it!" That scared me a little, but Mom says I'm pretty safe.

Anyway, we must have met over 200 kids altogether in Craig, Steamboat, Grand Junction, Durango, and Alamosa. Lots of them have dogs of their own. But they thought I was cute, too.

Mom got to stop at lots of books stores and we were in a few papers and we even got to be on the public radio in Ignacio! Mom was a little nervous to be live on the radio, but it sounded like she did okay and another guy, Vonn, from the Boys & Girls Clubs was on with her.

But our favorite thing was that Julie had a pajama party in Alamosa and a bunch of kids came over in their jammies for a reading while their parents drank wine and bought books to support the Boys & Girls Clubs. We met a 7 week old adorable Bernese puppy named Yoda. He was missing his litter and sure liked to play with all the little stuffed dogs that Mom was selling with the book! Can you tell which one he is?

Tomorrow we head out to peddle books in Utah, Nevada, & California!

Love and Kisses from Hannah!

Halloween Hannah & Hounds

I wanted to go to the Halloween parade as Eve to celebrate Steve Jobs and that bite out of his apple, but Mom said I needed a bigger fig leaf. I wonder when they're going to come out with the iPooch or the iPaw so I can interact more. And while we're on that, why didn't they ever just create the iMe? That's what all this new technology is about after all, right?

We went to a grand Halloween parade with people and pooches in Carmel, CA this weekend. There was a hot dog lunch afterwards that seemed a little inappropriate to me. This town is known for it's dog friendliness after all! Dogs lounge on couches at Doris Day's hotel, and they hang out in restaurants and wear designer clothes here. We visited the awesome Diggity Dog pet boutique and watched this pug try on his halloween outfits. I think he ended up as the clown, but he could have sold margerine with that crown on!

We sold more books to some of Dad's golf buddies. They may have been harassed a little bit, after all, they aren't used to buying kids books. But they'll see - they have grandkids that will love it when they read it to them. And it sounds like the book may have made it into our first west coast stores. Back at home Mom had great success last week reading to kids at Boys & Girls Clubs and getting the book into stores along the Front Range of Colorado. Here's a list of places so far if you want to support your local bookstore!

Happy Halloween, but don't eat unwrapped bones from strangers!

Love, Hannah