“Dog Band” has been reviewed by CM: Canadian Review of Materials, and is Highly Recommended (4 stars out of 5)!

About CM: CM: Canadian Review of Materials is published weekly from September through June and is an all-volunteer online publication that features reviews of books and other materials that are authored, illustrated, and/or published by Canadians and that are produced for/of interest to children and adolescents. CM's reviewers are teachers, teacher-librarians, public librarians, and university professors who have an interest and expertise in materials for juveniles. CM's contents are of great interest to those who are seeking evaluative comments to assist them in making personal or institutional purchases of Canadian books or other materials for juveniles.

Excerpt of the review: “...Dog Band is dense with information about animal names, with pronunciations included, and genres of music, with a description of each type of music and the instruments usually associated with that genre. The text is rich with musical vocabulary, such as, “lick on his guitar”, “ditty on a saxophone”, “key with a trill”, and “bluesy riff on the harmonica.”

Children will enjoy reading Dog Band or having it read to them. The illustrations and the text will encourage many questions from the reader as the topics are dealt with briefly and each topic could be explored much further. This book could be used to introduce music concepts and also for unit of study about animals, including pets.” 
Check out the full review and reviewer here: https://www.cmreviews.ca/node/2407

To begin with, please tell me a bit about yourself—your background in writing for children and in other genres and/or other fields.

I am from the Minneapolis area of Minnesota in the United States- born and raised. My husband Will and I live outside of Minneapolis with our 2 kids Cami and Wyatt. I am a teacher and have taught everything from kindergarten-8th grade. I self published my first children's book in 2018. Since then, I have started my own publishing company, Hop Off the Press LLC, and have self published 7 more books in my series Cami Kangaroo and Wyatt Too. I am currently working on a new series called Young Change Makers! 

What inspired the premise of your overall Young Change Makers series of books? How did this idea come about? And if you’re able to go into a bit more detail about what each of the books is about, that would be great!

It's been on my heart to do something where I would showcase kids doing amazing things in a series for a while now. Last winter, I had the idea to reach out to actual kids and feature them in a new book. I believe these stories will inspire and bring hope to others. I originally was only going to write one book, but I kept finding kids to feature so it's turned into 7 books, each featuring 12 kids. The kids help animals, people and the environment in different ways.

Where did you find these amazing kids to showcase?

I searched specific Instagram hashtags and created a graphic that said I was looking and posted it on social media.

Why do you feel it’s particularly important right now to feature these children making change?

The world can be a stressful, negative place. With everything that's been going on with COVID and other things on the news, people can get pretty depressed and sad. When I read about these kids I'm featuring, I am filled with hope and joy. I hope they inspire others like they have for me! They give me hope for the future.

Do you hope this inspires other children to strive and dream?

Yes! And not only children. I think they inspire adults too- it's never too late to follow your dreams.

What was the most challenging part of writing/creating this particular story?

All of the moving parts of a nonfiction book! There's me: the author, researcher and publisher. Then there's my illustrator, my formatter, my cover designer, my interior designer, the parents/families, my editors, my printer, my beta readers, my FB group, my launch team, my PR team and MORE! It's crazy! 

Sami Orlando being her Facebook handle, BTW.
And just what is a Child Life Specialist? You're about to find out!