| Biography | Her Books | mk 1-28-08
Mona Kerby
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Kerby, Mona. Owney, the Mail Pouch Pooch.
Pictures by Lynne Barasch.
New York: Frances Foster, Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, forthcoming Spring 2008. |
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Owney was a traveling dog, a scraggly
mutt, who loved to
ride the United States mail trains back in the early 1900s. He
supervised the men and mail. No train ever had an accident when
he was on board. Frances Foster, Lynne Barasch, and I had lots of fun working on this book. We hope you like it, too. Click here for a three-minute video I made about Owney and below that, you'll see some questions and answers about him. |
 Owney guarding men and mail. |
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| Some
information about how I wrote the book and what sources I used... |
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| 1.
How
did you find out about Owney? I read an article in our local paper (The Carroll County Times) about mail going by wagons. I called the National Postal Museum in Washington D.C. to learn more and they sent me a book called Mail on the Move by James H. Bruns where I read about this lucky dog named Owney. His story intrigued me. I then ordered a booklet from them called Owney: Mascot of the Railway Mail Service. I wrote what I thought was a short story suitable for a picture book. 2. How long did it take to get it published? It took nine years from the first time I wrote it to the time it will become an actual book. 3. How many different versions do you have of the story? I have written the story about Owney all kinds of ways--as a chapter book, as a fiction story, as a nonfiction story. I have at least 33 different versions saved on my computer. 4. Why did you write it so many times? Several reasons--because no publisher accepted it...because two publishers asked me to revise it...because I thought it was important to keep trying. 5. Who accepted it? Frances Foster of Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. I sent it to her in the fall of 2004 and she wrote back in the summer of 2005 saying she would like it. 6. Why does it take so long? Publishing houses receive thousands of manuscripts every week. A writer has to wait her turn in line--just like you have to wait your turn in the water fountain line. After a story gets accepted, then the editor selects an illustrator. Then the illustrator has to draw the pictures. After that, the facts need to be checked, which may mean that the words in the story need to be revised. After that, the story goes to the printer to be made into a book. |
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| The sources I used... |
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| Whenever
possible, I like to find the same facts in at least two completely
independent sources. After all, humans make mistakes. I did
my best to verify all the facts, but listen--telling the story of a dog
isn't easy, especially one that lived over a hundred years ago. Owney didn't talk and he
never wrote his own autobiography. a. I went to the National Postal Museum to see the display about Owney. I read books written by the historians at the museum. b. I visited the National Archives to read the articles in Owney's file. c. I read old newspaper articles about Owney from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. I found these in an online source called ProQuest Historical Newspapers. d. I called the public library in Owney's hometown--the Albany Public Library in New York and talked with the town librarian, Ellen Gamache. e. I spoke with Virginia Bowers, the city historian of Albany, New York. Did you hit any trouble spots? Yes. And if I ever come to your school on an author visit, I might tell you about them. |
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| Website Suggestions for
teachers to consider when using the book |
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| Search historical newspapers: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle <http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle> is a historical newspaper dating from 1841-1902. They have some articles about Owney. Northern New York Historical Newspapers <http://news.nnyln.net/>are provided by the Northern New York Library Network to enhance access to the region's unique local history. On this site, articles about Owney are in the Ticonderogo Sentinel and the Ogdensburg Advance. On page 20 of the book, Owney, the Mail Pouch Pooch, there's a list of cities that Owney visited. I found them in different newspaper reports. Here's a link to railroad routes. Can your students figure out possible routes that Owney might have traveled? <http://www.trainweb.com/cgi-bin/photos/showpic1.cgi?/maps/natlmap97.gif+maps/index.htm> Visit the National Postal Museum <http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/resources>. Read definitons of mail sack, mail bag, and pouch. http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/museum/1d_BagPrototype.html See
a sample of some of the old newspapers
I read that I found in the Historical ProQuest database. See
Owney's medals at Arago:
People, Places, and the Post <http://www.arago.si.edu>
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