Book Cover Premiere: The Great Puppy Invasion

Alastair Heim and Kim Smith join us today for the cover reveal of their brand new picture book, The Great Puppy Invasion! Watch the video below, then keep reading to learn more about the inspiration behind the story.

Alastair: Sure! The Great Puppy Invasion is about the day that hundreds of puppies suddenly show up in little Teddy’s town of Strictville – a no-nonsense, no-fun town that has NEVER seen puppies before. From there, colossally cute chaos ensues.

Kim: A lot of picture reference and trips to the dog park to be inspired by puppies and dogs. The illustrations were then first sketched out on paper in pencil and then redrawn and painted in Photoshop.

Alastair: One of the first things that popped into my brain, after I had the initial idea for the story, was just how silly and ridiculous puppy behavior actually is when you stop and think about it – especially if you have never experienced puppies before. With that in mind, one of my favorite parts happens early in the book when the townspeople are trying to get rid of the puppies and attempt do so by throwing STICKS at them. I don’t want to give too much away, but you can probably figure out how the puppies respond when people throw sticks their way ;-).

Kim: For me, I’m pretty excited for readers to see the pages with piles and piles of puppies! They were so much fun to illustrate and there are lots of little fun little details added in on every page. Hopefully readers will see something different every time they pick up the book.

Alastair: Not that I would ever compare myself to Lego Batman, but he and I do have one fear in common – Snake Clowns. I’m not actually afraid of clowns at all, but if hundreds of snakes gained the intellectual wherewithal to dress as clowns and invade my hometown, well then, that would be my last day in town. Sorry, Mom.

Kim: I would love a prairie dog invasion! They’re so much fun to sit and watch, I would never get anything done.

Alastair: My favorite kind of puppy is a Whippet puppy. My wife and I have had three of them over the course of our marriage and their names were Pike, Daisy and Dopple.

Kim: My dog, Whisky, who was a puppy at the time I was illustrating the book, was an inspiration for one of the little puppies in the story. See if you can spot the little border terrier puppy bounding about.