Un’fur’gettable
Whiskey Joe has another adventure
Plymouth children’s author Jill Andra Young will celebrate the release of two new additions to her Adventures of Whiskey Joe series with a book launch from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at EG Nick’s in downtown Plymouth.
The event will mark the debut of “
Whiskey Joe Goes to the Library” and the “Adventures of Whiskey Joe Coloring Book.” Suzanne LaCroix, a local author, will also introduce her new book, “Maple’s Winter Walkabout.”
In “Whiskey Joe Goes to the Library,” the series’ title character, a Basenji, follows his curiosity to the library, where he looks for books about Africa, the breed’s homeland. Along the way, he meets fascinating animals and gets closer to them than he expected.
The coloring book features scenes from both “Whiskey Joe Goes to the Library” and Young’s first book, “Whiskey Joe Gets Lost.” It also includes images of the real Whiskey Joe for children to color.
“We’re excited to celebrate these new books and share more adventures with readers,” Young said. “Whiskey Joe has a big personality and an even bigger sense of adventure, and I hope children enjoy following him wherever his curiosity takes him.”
The series grew out of a real-life escape. Young’s retired show dog wriggled out of his harness one morning and was gone for several hours before returning home safely. Young, who lives in Plymouth, couldn’t stop wondering where he had gone.
“It bothered me,” she said. “I wondered what he did while he was gone.”
That question became “Whiskey Joe Gets Lost,” in which a mischievous dog makes his way through neighborhoods, playgrounds and city streets. He spots a fountain much like the one in Kellogg Park, then heads to the police station, where his microchip helps reunite him with his owner. Young said the moral is simple: “Always have your pets microchipped so they can get home.”
Young never planned to become an author. A Plymouth resident since 1982, she studied at the Center for Creative Studies and ran a commercial photography business in downtown Plymouth for 25 years, specializing in pet portraits. She began the project by making a photo book for herself to work out what might have happened during Whiskey Joe’s outing.
“It was an accident,” she said. After she posted the cover on Facebook, friends and neighbors encouraged her to share the story more widely, and she learned to publish the book through Amazon.
Young adopted Whiskey Joe after losing her previous Basenji, Henry. She has loved the breed since she was a teenager, she said, drawn to its independence, intelligence and the fact that “they don’t bark.”
For more information, contact Young at adventuresofwhiskeyjoe@gmail.
