Compare and Contrast

More from my ongoing interview about my soon-to-be-published book Little Cat’s Luck:Question: Like Little Cat’s Luck, your title Little Dog, Lost (which earned starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist) is also a story in verse, and also contains Jennifer A. Bell’s emotionally resonant illustrations. Are there other parallels between the two stories, Marion?My Answer: Many. I wrote Little Cat’s Luck to be a companion to Little Dog, Lost, though I did not use the same setting or the same cast of characters, either human or animal, in the two stories. Another difference is that Little Cat’s Luck is told entirely from an animal perspective. Little Dog, Lost follows the dog’s journey part of the time but focuses more on the humans. Both, however, are set in sheltering small towns, though the difference in perspective—in Little Cat’s Luck seeing the town through the eyes of a cat instead of through the eyes of a boy—give them a somewhat different feel. Both also tell the story through a narrator who invites the reader into relationship. And both, of course, are novels in verse; illustrated by the same fine illustrator, Jennifer A. Bell, and their covers are designed to complement one another.Special giveaway update: Congratulations to the winners of my Little Dog, Lost giveaway! You can find the winners here.