Bookpleasures.com isdelighted to introduce award-winning children’s author LindaHarkey, the imaginative mind behind the beloved Hickory Doc’sTales series. With stories like The Case of the Missing PinkPiggy, The Great Animal Escape, and Desert Friends,Linda’s 13 books spring from her deep affection for dogs, herpassion for teaching, and her love of the natural world.

Linda’s journey includesroles as a schoolteacher, mother, and devoted owner of hunting dogs.For over 22 years, she brought history to life as a volunteer docentat Oklahoma’s National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and theGilcrease Museum, where her creative children’s programs sparkedcuriosity and wonder in young minds.

Her tales weave togetherlaughter, intrigue, and animal escapades, nurturing early literacyand inspiring children to fall in love with reading.

;re grateful to Lindafor joining us and sharing her wisdom on captivating reluctantreaders and turning books into adventures for children.

Norm: What practicalways can parents make reading time more engaging without relying onscreens? How do you recommend incorporating props or voices from yourbooks, like Blake Jake’s Unusual Day? 

Linda: I am using my bookBlake Jake’s Unusual Day (Travels with the Pack) on these twoquestions. Books are tools that help parents connect with theirchildren. Have parents read the book themselves first. 

Parentscould then have their children turn to page 7 and 8 to find thecharacters of the story. Ask what each animal is? (turkey, dog,bull). 

Tell them this story is about what happens when Blake JakeTurkey and his best friend Homer, a Hereford bull, encounter anannoying hunting dog named Rush, who decides to hunt animals that arelarger than he is. 

Then read the story after this with theirchildren or have them read it to you. While reading the storytogether, when the animals speak the child could make the sound ofthat animal. You could also use animal puppets to engage the childwhile reading the story. They can have family conversationsabout the book with their children at mealtime or bedtime. 

Norm: Why do someearly-reader books fail to hold children’s attention, and whatsimple fixes have you found most effective? How do parents at homereplicate those fixes during bedtime reading? 

Linda: One simple fix thatI have found that holds children’s attention is to use the fivesenses (see, smell, taste, hear, and feel) and have them pretend tobe in the picture and ask them one or two questions on various pagessuch as: 

What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? Whatcould you taste? What do you feel or touch? In other words, you drawthe children into the story. It is important for them to feel theyare participating in the story.  

The five senses are a verysimple way of engaging children and do not require props etc. This iseasy for parents to do during bedtime reading. 

Norm: Amid decliningliteracy rates, how can storytelling techniques like those in yourbooks excite kids about reading at home or school? What’s onelow-effort technique from your experience that yields big engagementgains?

Linda: I tell thechildren that as we “walk through the story” we will seevocabulary words that are in black and all caps. They are to raisetheir hands if they know the definition of that word when I come toit. 

I call on several for the answer (try to use different childrenfor each one), then I go over the answer and continue reading untilwe get to the next vocabulary word and repeat the above. 

You can take one page andhave the children look at the picture and read the text on that page.Then ask them how they might change the text to go with the picture.They love doing this. 

Norm: Librarians andteachers often select books—what should they prioritize in early-reader titles like yours for literacy development? How do mystery andadventure in The Case of the Missing Pink Piggy stand out fromtypical choices? 

Linda:The vocabulary wordsin bold throughout the story. 

The activities at the endof the book: writing, drawing, coloring, cutting, solving puzzles,pretend play game, recalling the order of events, and vocabulary wordmatch. 

One review said it bestabout The Case of the Missing Pink Piggy standing out from typical choices. “Perhapswe’re just making the error of expecting something conventionalfrom a Linda Harkey children’s book. 

Harkey’s children’s booksjust aren’t conventional. In fact, they tend to be veryunconventional. She’s always finding ways to subvert ourexpectations....Harkey sneaks in some terrific nature and sciencetidbits. Children are introduced to pack rats, seeds, snow, animaltracks, and the idea that some animals help plants grow by movingseeds around. 

The winter setting feels crisp and cozy, and theillustrations reinforce that feeling with expressive dog faces,playful body language, and a landscape that makes you want to curl upwith a blanket and read.” 

Norm: Your seriesbridges picture books to chapter books with animal mischief—how doyou structure plots to ease that transition? Which book in the seriesbest exemplifies this, and why?

Linda: Hickory Doc’sTales (The Pack: First Generation) was the beginning of my series onthe “pack”. Each chapter emphasized one or two of my originalfive dogs. 

After that book, I wanted more illustrations to go withthe text, so I began to “key in” on individual dogs in my seriesof animal books. My plots are structured depending on what story Iwant to do. 

I try to have one or two protagonists and one or twoantagonists. My transitions between picture and chapter books aredependent on length of plot, characters, age-appropriate etc. Myhusband and I had over 30 dogs in 56 years so I had plenty ofcharacters and stories to work from. 

The Remarkable Story ofWillie the Crow (A Hickory Doc’s Tale) best exemplifies thetransition from chapter book to picture book by taking the characterof Willie (Chapter 6 – Willie’s First Secret p. 63 in HickoryDoc’s Tales and giving Willie a prominent role – hero in helpingto save Patch from drowning in The Remarkable Story of Willie theCrow. 

Norm: Your volunteerwork at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum andGilrease Museum shaped children’s curricula—how has thatinfluenced your storytelling style? Can you share a specific museumpresentation that sparked an idea for one of your books, like DesertFriends? 

Linda: It influenced mystorytelling style by having the children realize that each piece ofart work is an entire story or book. It causes me to make mystorytelling short, simple and to the point. We only had a fewminutes per artwork. 

I love to have the children use theirimagination to add to the story such as “Tell me what you wouldhave as an ending or a beginning?”The museum representationvisually on Charlie Russell’s artwork – paintings, sculptures,etc. – showing landscape scenes with or without characters in themcould have sparked an idea for Desert Friends. 

What really sparked myidea for my book Desert Friends was the many hunting trips my husbandtook to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona using two of our dogs (Tripodand a friend’s dog, Gator). Mike (known as The Great One to thedogs) would hunt quail. 

Norm: What inspiredthe Hickory Doc’s Tales series particularly drawing from yourexperiences as a hunting dog owner? How do real-life behaviors ofyour dogs translate into the mischief of characters like Willie theCrow or Chatty the Hen Pheasant?

Linda:The memories andlife lessons of 30 dogs over a span of 56 years. The encouragementand belief in me given from my husband, Michael. I loved usinganimals to tell stories to children. Animals have character andpersonality traits just like humans.

The mischief of characters in TheRemarkable Story of Willie the Crow portrays Zeke (younger brother ofDoc) perfectly. Zeke was a great hunting dog, but as soon as myhusband got another dog, Zeke refused to do the hunting part. 

Hewould walk next to my husband and when the other dog found the bird,Zeke would run in, grab the bird, and bring back to my husband. Zekewas “Management not Worker.” 

In one page of the textZeke is talking to Doc about Patch playing with her new friendWillie. This says it all about Zeke. “The rest of the pack,especially Zeke, constantly complained about Patch playing withWillie. 

He didn’t think any respectable hunting dog should beplaying with a crow to being with—let alone a crow with badeyesight! Zeke snarled, “Doc, what would all the other dogs in theneighborhood think of a crow and a hunting dog playing together?” 

The mischief of charactersin Chatty the Hen Pheasant portrays Nassau’s character like hereally was—loyal, determined, a great hunting dog. 

This is ahumorous and action filled story about a smart hen pheasant and adetermined labrador Retriever and a hunter that Nassau and the otherdogs call the (Great One). 

The determination of Nassau is shownthroughout the book especially on p. 19. “Puzzled, I (Nassau)stared at the Great One and barked. I brought a perfectly goodpheasant to you. I used my soft mouth just like in training. I didn’tbite down or leave teeth marks. You let her go! My wonderfulcatch-of-the-day.” 

Norm: How does humorin your books, such as in Solitary Toes and Brown-Headed Cowbirds,build confidence in young readers? What’s a favorite funny momentfrom your writing process that tested early literacy skills?

Linda: The children canunderstand the vocabulary and the humor in the story. Example: UnderCrunch Through The Garden – Zeke (German Shorthaired Pointer) andB. J. (horse) were in the garden. “A young green snapping turtlejust happened to be looking for his lunch right then, and Zeke was onthe menu. The turtle fastened its mouth on Zeke’s short tail. Zekeleaped and bounced through the garden. 

At the same time, you couldhear his high- pitched bark which sounded like yelp, yelp.”

My stories engage childrenin the lives of dogs. There are discussions and learning activitiesabout character development and elements of the story. A funny momentwas when one child brought a stuff dog named “Zeke” after mycharacter “Zeke” in my book series. The child enjoyed my books. 

Norm: Dogs are centralto your inspiration—how does owning hunting dogs influence themesof family and secrets in Doc, Willie, and the Pack? What real packdynamics from your dogs appear in the story? 

Linda: At times, we hadfive or six hunting dogs. They were constantly in and out of ourhouse through the doggy door. The dogs in my books are taken from ourreal dogs at home. 

Their personalities were all different but theywere truly a family pack. They enjoyed our 20 acres in Catoosa andwere always bringing back critters. 

The real pack dynamics fromour dogs were – Zeke was smart, lazy, and tried to boss the others,although they didn’t pay much attention to him. – Doc was theoldest and wisest of the pack and tolerated Zeke – Patch was Doc’sdaughter and a terrific hunting dog – Rush was curious and alwaysgetting in trouble – Newt was the lab and very sweet and close toPatch and Rush. 

Norm: Where can ourreaders find out more about you and your books? 

Linda: harkeyanimaltales.com • storymonsters.com 

Norm: As we concludeour interview, from The Budding Staff in 2005 to your newestreleases, how has your writing evolved to better support earlyliteracy? What upcoming project builds on the lessons from DesertFriends’ second edition? 

Linda:My writing hasevolved to better support early literacy in three ways: (1) I havethe visual related to the text on each page. (2) I have vocabularywords in bold throughout the book. (3) I have Activity pages withanswers in the back of the book for early/older elementary.  

Myupcoming project that builds on the lessons from Desert Friends 2ndEdition will be The Curious Friendship of Patch and Barney. It is astory about Patch, hunting dog and Barney a skunk. 

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors