Writing a Non-Fiction Book: Dizzy
I have been adding non-fiction books to my repertoire. My first book was “The Birds of My Backyard.” I have written about four books featuring the seasons and a book about what you can find in a bog. I wanted to personalize my non-fiction books by writing about a specific animal. I first chose to write about Dizzy, the therapy dog.
“Dizzy’s owner is my very good friend Liza. She has told me about her work in schools and how much support Dizzy has given to children learning to read.”
Stating the Facts
The facts that I wanted to tell children about what a therapy dog does included the support that the dogs and their owners provide to children and senior citizens. I wanted to make it clear that not just any dog can do this. The dog and owner must be well trained in order for them to enter this type of program. Therapy dogs offer emotional support to children going to court. In the classroom, children love to read to the dogs. The dogs visit health care centers providing love to those who live there.
Personalizing the Book to Dizzy
I wanted the reader to know first about Dizzy. I wanted to show how he was like most other dogs. Dizzy has a family that loves him. Dizzy loves to go on walks, play with his brother, Rollie, and have play dates with his best friend, Harry.
Discussing how Dizzy became a Therapy Dog
Dizzy and his owner Liza went to a special school to learn how to support children and people. The training is extensive.
Writing for a Beginning Reader
I wanted this book to be able to be read by a beginning reader (I had my grandson, Cody, in mind, who was just learning to read and LOVED Dizzy). That meant the vocabulary had to be simple. The sentences had to be short, but I still wanted to have the book inform children about what a therapy dog does.
Illustrating the Story
So once this book was written, the illustrations came next. For this book, I used my IPad’s program Procreate to draw the illustrations. I really like this program because it allows you to grab an illustration on one page and take it to another. You can resize it and change part of the drawing without having to redraw the whole character or in this case Dizzy. It was cool because I could take his head over, add a mortarboard and tassel, and have him go from lying down to sitting up.
Your Turn to Create a Story
You can do this too! Is there a real animal that you would like to feature in a book? Think about what makes that animal special. Let your imagination be your guide! Outline where you will go and what you want your book to include. Try illustrating either through drawings or pictures. Give it a try! I truly believe we all have it in us to do.
