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Overview
Now available as a novel based on the screenplay written by Kieth Merrill, this story is destined to become a classic for young readers during the holiday season.
The film centers around 12-year-old Emma O'Connor as she is sent to live with her "aunt" in the small town of Doverville. Emma soon finds herself in the middle of a "dog-fight" with the mayor and town dogcatcher. In order to strike down their "no-dogs" law, Emma must bring together a group of schoolmates, grown-ups, and adorable dogs of all shapes and sizes in a spectacular holiday pageant. The 12 Dogs of Christmas is a fun, heartwarming story, featuring a diverse canine cast and is perfect for all those who love dogs, kids, and Christmas.
The 12 Dogs of Christmas was first introduced as a picture book and board book with companion CD written by then 8-year-old, Emma Kragen. Now with over 500,000 books sold, the story has been expanded into a feature-length film.
"Leiva recounts the story in a very crisp, snappy style of prose which is full of humor and warmth...it's on it's way to becoming a Christmas standard."
Stuart Nulman "Bookbanter" on CJAD, Montreal
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781418568580 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nelson, Tommy |
| Publication date: | 09/16/2007 |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishing |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 152 |
| File size: | 607 KB |
| Age Range: | 8 - 12 Years |
Read an Excerpt
The 12 DOGS of CHRISTMAS
By Steven Paul Leiva
Thomas Nelson
Copyright © 2007 Steven Paul LeivaAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1053-1
Chapter One
Emma
Emma O'Connor was a tomboy. Whether she was a natural tomboy or a tomboy because of her circumstances, even she was not sure. She might very well have liked to have worn pretty and frilly dresses, and she might very well have liked to have gone to fancy tea parties, but she lived in Pittsburg in 1931 when the country was suffering through the Great Depression, a time when very few had the money to be frilly or fancy. And it was just she and her father. Her mother had died several years before, and her father knew nothing about the raising of girls. So he dressed her in knickers-those funny boy pants that never made it down to the ankles-when she went to school, and he dressed her in an old pair of his overalls-slightly adjusted for her size-when she went to work.
Even though she was only twelve years old, it was necessary for her to work to help earn enough money for them to live. Her father worked every job he could find, but there just weren't that many jobs for men those days. So Emma delivered the Pittsburg Herald to all who could afford the luxury of a newspaper. Once a week she also collected all the bacon grease that her neighbors had saved for her in empty coffee cans. She could sell the grease for a few dollars to a company that used it to help make soap.
Emma O'Connor was a tough kid. Not mean, mind you, she was anything but mean, but tough-because she had to be.
It was the beginning of the Christmas season, and no twelve-year-old girl could be tough when visions of brightly wrapped presents appeared out of nowhere, and desires for a warm hearth and hot cocoa kept tugging at her, but had nowhere to take her.
Is it any wonder that Emma was a bit sad when she was finishing up her paper route that day? It was almost Christmas, and yet the headlines on her papers had nothing cheerful to report. And when she told Mr. Lawson that she was collecting for the paper that day, he said to her, with some embarrassment, "Can't afford it anymore, Em. Take us off your list." Then, as she did everyday, she walked past the local Hooverville, the empty lot where people who were homeless because of the Depression had built a bunch of makeshift shelters out of box-wood, cardboard, and scraps of metal. Well, that was sad every day, but even sadder around Christmas. Even the Salvation Army carolers, singing the songs Emma had always loved, seemed a little sad. Emma stopped to listen for a minute, gave them a smile, and wished she could have put a nickel into the collection pot, because poor as she was, she knew a lot more people had more reasons to be sad than she did. For at least she had her father, and he had her, and they had always taken care of each other, so everything-eventually-would be all right.
Wouldn't it?
When Emma got home to their dim, cold apartment, she found her father staring at an official-looking document. "Dad?" she said as she put down her paper route earnings on the desk. Her father, whose name was Douglas, looked at her and said straight out, because he knew his girl was tough, "Em, we've been evicted. We have to leave tomorrow."
"What?"
"We have to move out."
"Where are we going to live?" Emma asked, fearful of the answer. "Not the Hooverville, we aren't going to-"
"No! We are not. I'm going to send you to your Aunt Dolores."
"I have an Aunt Dolores?"
"I've never told you about her, have I? Well, yes, you do, sort of, it's a long ... Look, she's a good woman, and I'm sure she'll take you in. She lives up in Maine, in a little town that I remember being quite beautiful called Doverville."
"But I want to stay with you!"
"Of course you do, honey. And I want you to, and you will again soon, I promise. But not right now. Right now I've got to figure out how to make things right, Em. I've got one last chance to be a very good father-and a very good man. I have decided that the country may be in a depression, but that doesn't mean I have to be. I'm not going to be. I'm going to go out there, no matter what the odds, and find a way to take care of you. But I've got to do it alone, Em. I can't ask you to go through what I may have to go through until I find that way."
Emma was confused. What her father was saying both comforted her-and scared her.
Emma did not sleep much that night. She passed the long hours weeping for her father and humming one of her mother's old songs. She alternated between the two, calming her sobs with the memory of her mother's song. She couldn't stand for her father to hear her cry through the paper-thin walls of her room. He had enough to worry about right now.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The 12 DOGS of CHRISTMAS by Steven Paul Leiva Copyright © 2007 by Steven Paul Leiva. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments....................viiPrologue....................1
1. Emma....................4
2. It's an Adventure!....................9
3. Doverville....................14
4. The Brothers Doyle....................20
5. Aunt Dolores....................24
6. A Double Rescue....................34
7. Puppy Love....................39
8. Old Jake....................47
9. Puppy Trouble....................53
10. Shack Attack....................58
11. Emma Undercover....................66
12. Caught!....................74
13. Dolores to the Rescue....................81
14. Emma to the Rescue....................88
15. In the Mayor's Office....................96
16. A Small Change of One Heart....................101
17. A Canine Christmas Eve....................114
18. A Triple Reunion....................127
Epilogue....................133
About the Author....................135