Cleveland Ohio Book Tour

I had a wonderful opportunity to do a 10-day promotional book tour for my third Children’s Picture Book “Work, Dogs, Work: a A Highway Tail”. Thanks to Cleveland State University’s Center for Excellence & Innovation in Education I was able to visit several local schools and have the chance to talk to thousands of kids. Here’s the video from my book tour. Hope you enjoy it.

http://youtu.be/jXLxKhn-8Uk

http://clevelandschoolsbookfund.org/author-series/

Goodreads Giveaway

Hey everyone

I'm giving away 5 copies of Work, Dogs, Work: A Highway Tail at the end of September. Click over to Goodreads and enter to win a signed copy.

Road Maze

Here's a new activity sheet. Can you help Duke, Buddy and Max get to their trucks? There's a lot of tangled highway to get through! Here's a link to the downloadable PDF page. Road Work

Learn to Draw Jinx!

Here's a fun little activity sheet you can download. The link to the PDF is Here.
Have fun learning to draw Jinx!

Work, Dogs, Work – Kirkus Review

I just saw the new review for Work, Dogs, Work: A Highway Tail from the folks at Kirkus. I've been very fortunate to have all three of my books in the series get very favorable reviews. 

Here's the take away snippet from the review, "Big trucks, jovial dogs and snappy rhyming text serve again as the building blocks of another successful entry in this solidly built series. (Picture book. 3-8)"

You can see the full review here: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-horvath/work-dogs-work/

New Ad for Publisher's Weekly

I've been working on a little animated GIF ad for Publisher's Weekly. I'm struggling to get the file size down to an acceptable number without sacrificing the image quality too much. 

I think I'm losing the battle...

Hopefully they won't notice that I'm WAY over the limit of 40K. But at 197K, it's significantly smaller than my original 720. And that should count for something, right?

Is it any good?

Great review from Common Sense Media for Build Dogs Build. It's always nice to be compared to the classics!

"James Horvath has another hit read-aloud with BUILD, DOGS, BUILD. As in his first book, Dig, Dogs, Dig, Horvath leads readers through the process of construction, with the added fun of demolition this time around. The rickety building comes down with a satisfying "BOOM" -- "Wreck, dogs, wreck!" He presents a parade of construction equipment including a crane, a dump truck, a trencher, a pumper, and more to take kids from the laying of underground pipes to the placement of glass on the highest floors of the new building. 

Like Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day and the classic Go, Dog. Go!, this book is packed with humorous touches and helpful details. Definitely a keeper."

You can see all the details here: 
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/build-dogs-build-a-tall-tail

School Library Journal Review

Just received a great review from School Library Journal.

HORVATH, James. Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail. illus. by author. 40p. HarperCollins/Harper. Jan. 2014. Tr $15.99. ISBN 9780062189677.

The canine crew from Horvath’s Dig, Dogs, Dig (HarperCollins, 2013) is needed again, this time on a demolition job, so foreman Duke and his enthusiastic pack head downtown. There’s an old building there that has to come down to make way for new high-rise homes at Bark Avenue. Their wrecking ball crashes into the structure with a gigantic “BOOM.” The yellow bulldozer clears “piles of rubble, and/bricks and concrete/without any trouble,” while the red and blue dump truck hauls it all away. 

Working dogs deserve a treat, so they grab a quick snack at the “R-Coach,” which features hot dogs, corn dogs, chili dogs, and the like. The work isn’t finished yet; there are trenches to be built for pipes and drains, a foundation to pour, girders to weld, and cables to run. The afternoon break involves a good game of fetch before installing the finishing touches on the interior. All in all, the penthouse, with its terrace and pool, is perfect, and tomorrow the mutts are off to another job. 

Horvath’s cartoonlike illustrations were created digitally, and the dogs are reminiscent of a beloved old Saturday-morning character, Augie Doggie. Youngsters who can’t get enough books with pictures of heavy equipment will be attracted to this one. – Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA

Best Books of 2013

A friend just sent me a great link to Atlanta Parent Online. They selected Dig, Dogs, Dig for one of their "Best Books of 2013" in the preschool to Elementary category. 

Thanks Atlanta, I've just selected you as "One of my Favorite Cities"! Here's the link to the online article.

http://www.atlantaparent.com/article/detail/best_books_of_20131

Build, Dogs, Build Giveaway on Goodreads!

It's getting closer to the release date for Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail. So I set up a Giveaway on Goodreads. I'll be giving away 5 signed and personalized copies of the new book once it releases in December. So follow the link and sign up for a chance to win a copy of my next book!

 
 

How to Draw Dig, Dogs, Dig

In preparation for the Orange County Children's Book Festival this coming weekend I created a simple "How-to" page to show everyone how I draw my dog characters.

The festival is this Sunday, September 29th from 9:30AM - 4:30PM at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa California. Hundreds of children's authors and illustrators will be there signing and selling their books. If you get a chance, come on down and stop by my booth. I have activity sheets, stickers, books and a raffle for some signed and personalized copies of my next book Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail.

I'll be on the illustration stage at 1:00PM and again at 2:45PM giving a live drawing demonstration and showing you all just how easy it is to draw your favorite dog characters. But if you can't make it, no problem. I've created this little "How-to-Draw" activity sheet that will walk you though the steps.

Hope to see you at the festival!

Play, Learn, Share... Dig!

I'm almost always online so when I ran across a blog post by Taryn and her kids on how much they enjoyed Dig, Dogs, Dig I couldn't help but respond. As a parent of home schooled/un-schooled kids I love reading about other parents who are fully engaged and excited about sharing wonderful learning and growing experiences with their kids. At this, Taryn is an expert!

So I couldn't wait to share some activity sheets and a special unbound copy of my next book Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail. I'm so pleased they loved it as much as the first. With me, flattery will get you everything! 

Thanks for the great post Taryn.


http://playlearnshare.blogspot.com/2013/09/dig-dogs-dig-surprise.html

Goodreads Giveaway!

I'm giving away 3 signed copies of Dig, Dogs, Dig: A Construction Tail on Goodreads. The giveaway ends on September 30th so follow the link and sign up for a chance to win a free book. Dig, Dogs, Dig Giveaway.

New Ad in Shelf Awareness

Running an ad this week in Shelf Awareness to see if I can reach a few more people. The book has been getting great reviews and selling really well. But since I'm not a household name... yet, every little bit helps.

The ad links over to the HarperCollins page with all the buy links and my book trailer. I'm curious to see what the response will be.

Order your copy today!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/XXcDvz 
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/10dCkoc
Books-a-Million: http://bit.ly/ZOZSzW
IndieBound: http://bit.ly/17iDVQ1

To learn more, visit http://bit.ly/12IqdEQ 

San Francisco Book Review

I just found two great 5-star book reviews for Dig, Dogs, Dig on the San Francisco Book Review. What makes these two reviews great, aside from the 5-star ratings is they're written by two five-year-old boys. Talk about getting direct feedback from your target audience.

Thanks Adam and Hayden. I'm glad you liked my book, and hopefully you'll like my next book, Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail, scheduled for release December 31st, 2013. 

Here's a couple quick quotes:

"I really liked this book because I liked reading about all of the different construction vehicles. I also liked how the words rhymed on each page. I noticed that the black cat was hiding on each page. I thought it was fun trying to spot the black cat! While the dogs were digging they found something hard. You will have to read the book to find out what it was! This book is one of my new favorite books!" - Adam, age 5

"I like this book because there is a kitty in it.  There is a dog in the book that looks like my dog so we called him Tucker.  The dog I call Tucker is friends with the kitty I like. I also like the illustrations.  It was fun to find the kitty on every page hiding among the dogs.  I liked when the kitty was spying on the ducks in the pond.  Kids who are my age (five) or younger would like this book.  I give it five stars." - Hayden, age 5

Check out Adam and Hayden's full reviews.

I love my job!!

The Children's Book Review

I'm featured in an "Authors Showcase" on theChildrensBookReview.com this month. You can check out the interview here.

I'm also doing a promotional give-away of 3 signed and personalized books. You can go to this link and register for a chance to win. The give-away ends on July 31st.

New York Times highlights Dig, Dogs, Dig.

Building a Playground
‘Construction Kitties’ and ‘Dig, Dogs, Dig’




By PAMELA PAULPublished: May 15, 2013


Great new article in the New York Times today. Click on the link below to get the full article. Here's a quick quote: 

"With its punchy rhymes and Hanna-Barbera panoramas, “Dig, Dogs, Dig” hops along with the bouncy effervescence of P.D. Eastman’s “Go Dog. Go!,”

 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/books/construction-kitties-and-dig-dogs-dig.html

Launch Event

We had an amazing launch event for Dig, Dogs, Dig on Sunday. Lots of people dropped by to purchase and have their books signed and I got the chance to do a fun reading with some of my biggest fans!

The event was held at Coalesce Book Store in beautiful downtown Morro Bay. 

The Levon "Lemon" Horvath Interview

So my youngest sone, Levon, although he prefers to go by the name "Lemon" has been very helpful to me during the process of writing and illustrating Dig, Dogs, Dig. So helpful, that he's pretty sure he did most of the work himself. 

We decided to interview him and see what he had to say. He does eventually give me a little credit. And truth be told, he was a very big part of Dig, Dogs, Dig!

I dedicated the book to both my boys, Levon and Ezzy. And you can see them on the inside credits page.

Dig, Dogs, Dig Official Book Trailer

My good friend, Mike Dietz, from Pencil Test Studios just finished my official book trailer! Check out Mike and his amazing work at Pencil Test Studios.

I'm very excited. I hope you all like it and share it!