Burping dog leads to kids' book
Elliot likes to eat.
Elliot likes to eat really fast.
Drop a Scooby Snack in front of the 6-year-old pooch and he's likely to gobble it down before you can say, "Scooby, Scooby-Doo."
All of which puts the Lhasa apso in the same doggie bowl as just about every other canine on the planet.
His owner, though, thinks he's special. Special enough, in fact, to write a children's book about him.
No, Elliot hasn't pulled a Lassie and rescued some kid from a well.
No, he can't hold Snoopy's goggles when it comes to flying a Sopwith Camel.
But Liese Hearth of Aurora doesn't think any of that matters, because she knows Elliot's got a talent that would turn Clifford the Big Red Dog green with envy.
Elliot can burp.
Finding a hero
Liese (pronounced Lee-za) Hearth has been an art teacher for the past seven years at schools in Chicago, West Chicago and most recently in Darien District 61, where she works with students in kindergarten through second grade at Mark Delay School.
"Being a teacher, I like to read books to my class about what we're learning," she says.
That got her to thinking about how nice it would be to find a book that her students wanted to read on their own. And that got her to thinking about how cool it would be to write such a book.
The challenge, of course, was to find just the right topic and, equally as important, just the right hero.
Then, one day last spring, the story just sort of came to her. She sat down and wrote the whole thing in about an hour, then spent most of the summer painting watercolors to illustrate it.
The end result is a 14-page paperback on 8½-by-8½ paper.
OK, it's not Shakespeare. It's not even "Because of Winn-Dixie." But it has a cool name -- "My Dog Burps" -- and it's a quick read, and when you're aiming at 8- and 9-year-olds, that's a pretty good start.
It's the tale of a dog named Elliot (surprise!) who goes out for walks and sees other dogs who can do neat tricks. Some can roll over. Some can run really fast.
It all makes Elliot sad because he can't do any of that stuff. Truth be told, he doesn't know what his trick is.
We won't spoil the ending for you, but suffice to say it's a happy one.
"My book is about searching for one's own talent and being proud of it," Hearth says. "Sometimes kids -- especially ones with self-esteem issues -- need to learn that eventually they'll find something they're good at."
M-I-C-K-E-Y
Hearth has known about her artistic talent since she started drawing as a little girl growing up in Kankakee.
"I remember drawing Mickey Mouse constantly," she says. "I did a pretty good job."
There were no art classes in her elementary school or junior high, so she started taking lessons from a private instructor. There were art classes in high school, though, and she excelled.
When she went to college -- she graduated from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and got a master's degree in education from Benedictine University in Lisle -- she elected to combine her passions for art and education and become an art teacher.
She may never have tackled her first children's book, though, had it not been for a day in 2003 when she and her husband, Billy, visited a PetSmart store that had invited the Shih Tzu Rescue, Adoption and Education Safehouse in Homer Glen to bring some of its dogs.
They were filling out a form when a year-old white bundle of fur wandered over and tried to steal their pen.
"It was really weird," Hearth says. "I think he actually picked us."
What made it even odder, she says, is that Elliot isn't exactly outgoing around strangers. He was beaten as a puppy and now, even though he stands about a foot high and weighs 25 pounds, is still skittish with people he doesn't know.
Nobody knew at the time about Elliot's talent, but he soon began putting it on display. After he's had a big meal, or some of those delectable Scooby Snacks, he tends to saunter on over and, well, you know, burp.
It's not real loud or anything -- it's more of a puffing of the cheeks -- but Hearth says it makes her laugh.
On that particular day in 2003, Elliot wasn't burping. He was, however, trying to have a say in picking his new family. He chose Liese and Billy.
And the moral of that story, for all you young pups out there, is that the pen really is mightier than the burp.
Julie, J.K. & Oprah
"My Dog Burps" is being published by PublishAmerica, which handles about 25,000 writers and tries to "encourage and promote the works of new, previously undiscovered authors," according to a press release from public relations guy Shawn Street.
That would be Hearth, who admits this is all new to her. She ran her original story by a writer friend who made a couple changes, and the publisher made a few tweaks, too, but "Burps" is still pretty much the same story that came tumbling out last spring.
She remembers showing it to Billy for the first time and what he told her: "Oh, my gosh, this could work."
She says the publisher has promised to try to sell her book to all the big chains, and she's hoping to meet with the people at Anderson's Bookshop in both Downers Grove and Naperville to see whether they'd be interested in stocking it and maybe even holding an autograph signing -- just like they do for Julie Andrews and J.K. Rowling.
She says she's even told the students in one of her classes about the book and "they just thought I was a superstar."
"My dream for the book was just having it published," she says. "That's the big thing for me."
Not unlike Elliot, she's hopeful that, at age 30, she's discovered a new talent she can be proud of.
"I'd love to do more books," she says. "I might want to do something geared toward art."
For now, though, she's focused on the story of her burping dog. And if Elliot's story takes off, well, she's good with that, too.
"Maybe it will turn into Clifford," she says.
And maybe, a reporter prods, she'll wind up on talk shows and on Amazon.com and with a spot on the New York Times best-seller list.
Hearth laughs, but then insists on a reality check.
"I'll be happy if kids enjoy it," she says. "If I don't wind up on 'Oprah,' it's OK."