The Dog Who Danced on the Moon is a heartwarming space adventure from award-winning bestselling author John Boyne and rising star illustrator Ashling Lindsay.
We caught up with the author to find our more about the book.
What sparked the idea for The Dog Who Danced on the Moon?
A few years ago, Puffin Books invited me to contribute a story to an anthology, The Puffin Book of Bedtime Stories. Even though I’d never written anything in rhyme form before, I composed a piece with this title and was very happy with the result. That publication is a lot different to the picture book that has now been published, but it was the starting point for this new adventure in publishing!
What can you tell us about Jeremy and Maxwell and the adventures they will go on?
Jeremy and his dog Maxwell are best friends. Jeremy is a quiet, studious boy who dreams of going into space one day, while Maxwell loves nothing more than to burst into dance whenever he sees his pal sad. Despite being only a little boy, Jeremy decides to follow his dreams and manages to sign up to a spaceship – Apollo 500 – and off the pair go to visit planets. Which is lucky for Earth, as an asteroid is heading our way and only this intrepid pair can figure out how to stop it!
Why is it important to dream?
From the time I was Jeremy’s age, I had one single dream: to write stories. It was my passion, my hobby, and every time I finished something it gave me a sense of achievement. I want children to recognise that whatever dream they have, no matter how outlandish, they can achieve it with a mixture of hard work, dedication and a refusal to give up. The Dog Who Danced on the Moon is all about empowering children, telling them that they can do – and be – anything they want, if they’re willing to work for it.
You’ve written many novels for both adults and children – where did you get your love of storytelling from?
From books themselves, and probably from my Mum, who always brought my siblings and I to the local library every week when we were children. I loved losing myself in my imagination, and in the worlds created by the authors whose books I read, and I knew I wanted to do that for other people. I’ve been publishing for 32 years now and I still haven’t lost my love of storytelling. If anything, my ambitions – like Jeremy’s and Maxwell’s – shine just as bright as they ever did.
Do you have somebody like Maxwell in your own life?
I’ve had a couple of dogs over the years, but none at the moment. That said, I absolutely adore dogs and can’t pass one on the street without stopping to pet him. Recently, I was invited to dinner at the home of some new friends and, when I knocked on their front door, I heard a loud barking from within and a big smile immediately crossed my face. Oh, they have a dog! I thought. Fantastic!
What do you hope readers take away from this story?
I mentioned above about empowering children through the story, but I also want them to have fun with it. I worked very hard at the rhymes, to make them funny while keeping the narrative flowing, and Ashling Lindsay, who illustrated the book, did an extraordinary job at making the finished book a thing of beauty. In an ideal world, one day, when I’m an old man, someone will come up to me in a signing queue and tell me they became an astronaut because, when they were a child, they read The Dog Who Danced on the Moon!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, six for younger readers and a collection of short stories. Perhaps best known for his 2006 multi-award-winning book The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, John’s other novels, notably The Absolutist and A History of Loneliness, have been widely praised and are international bestsellers. Most recently, The Heart’s Invisible Furies was a Richard & Judy Bookclub word-of-mouth bestseller, and A Ladder to the Sky was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award in association with Listowel Writers’ Week. His novels are published in over 50 languages.
Visit John Boyne’s website here
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Ashling Lindsay is an illustrator from Belfast. Her first book, The Night Box, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Klaus Flugge prize for illustration. Ashling is currently working towards her MA at Belfast School of Art.
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