No Ghoulish Green Monsters Here

Author Dawn Secord joins host Laura Reeves to discuss the release of her new book “No Ghoulish Green Monsters Here.”

Secord describes a lifetime in dogs, her time with Irish Setters and her childhood starting with Milk Bone snacks.

“Combining my love of art and writing and looking back on being a child with so many kids not acclimated with dogs and not realizing what a wonderful opportunity it is to find companionship,” Secord said. “Find security and to use words to make the kids feel safe. And so in 1984 it was laid on my heart when I got my first Irish Setter that I was going to do a book about an Irish setter for children and share my love of my dogs.

“I want to give parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and nieces, whomever, a book to sit down and talk about dogs and talk about their fears. This first book has messages about facing fears because everybody's afraid of something. And I wanted kids to know it's OK to be afraid and talk about it. Don't be afraid by yourself.

“The book comes with a free download that's on my website. So if they want to make it into an educational tool, it's got a glossary and it talks about Irish Setters. I even made maps for kids to learn how to read a map and some pictures and coloring book pages for the little ones, some things to research for the older ones. So I really wanted parents or adults, whoever they are, they have an opportunity to turn the book into an educational opportunity if they desired.

“I really want to promote that having a purebred dog is cool. So that's one thing. For the writing, I feel that it's timeless and I want to make an impact.”