Seasoned author and illustrator John Kelly admits that when the Collective Book Studio approached him about turning the award-winning animated short film Andy into a children\u2019s book, he found the project daunting. Despite having written the script for the film featuring a loveable puppy who receives training and undergoes the adoption process as a service dog, Kelly was stumped.<\/p>\n
Illustrations are usually created after the story has been written, Kelly says, with pictures highlighting different aspects of the text\u2014guiding readers through the story, building tension, emphasizing important character traits, and transitioning between plot points. With Andy, Kelly had to work backward and craft a book based on roughly 150 frames from a film of more than 5,000. \u201cThe major difficulty,\u201d Kelly says, \u201cwas reconstructing the full emotional tone of that story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Complicating matters, Andy, which won Best Animation at the 2023 World Cine Fest and surpassed four million views on YouTube in the first three months of its release, features nonspeaking characters. In a book, Kelly says, \u201ca single image may reveal a moment of pathos or drama, but the movement of the story can only be achieved by the text creating the illusion that the reader is party to events that have somehow just happened \u2018off-screen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly pulled it off with Andy: A Dog\u2019s Tale (October 2025), weaving in moments of emotional pain and joy experienced by Andy, his trainer, and Olivia, a child with a disability who adopts Andy. \u201cI think it\u2019s really important to tackle the big feelings in picture books,\u201d says the book\u2019s editor, Rebekah Piatte, who has edited adaptations for such Disney titles as Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen II. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for kids to see those emotions represented and be able to relate to the characters they see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emotionally weighty themes, unique perspectives, and compelling visuals are what define the children\u2019s list at the award-winning independent publisher. Another such title on the fall list, The Heart That Found You (November 2025), tackles the challenges a single adoptive mother and her daughter faced going through the adoption process. It\u2019s the story debut author Anna Schocket searched for but was unable to find in the marketplace. \u201cMost adoption books focused on two-parent households,\u201d she says, \u201cor explained the differences between parents and their adoptive children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schocket\u2019s goal was to write a book that would help her and other parents navigate important conversations about adoption, fostering, and surrogacy with their child or children. Schocket also wanted the book to convey certain powerful messages, including how deeply children are loved by their adoptive\u2014or \u201cfound\u201d\u2014parent and the difficult decisions made by birth mothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen starting a family didn\u2019t happen as I\u2019d hoped,\u201d Schocket says, \u201cI felt an undeniable void.\u201d She began seeking out single adoptive parents to learn about their experiences. Their insights inspired Schocket to embark on her own adoption journey.<\/p>\n
This journey is told through Heart, a character whose path to form a family closely mirrors Schocket\u2019s own and reinforces that children are \u201csurrounded by love\u201d from both their adoptive and their birth families. Colorful illustrations by French artist Carole Chevalier infuse the deeply emotional tale with a sense of joy and whimsy. Schocket\u2019s daughter has been \u201ccaptivated by the vibrant colors and beautiful illustrations,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Upon deciding to pursue a book project, Schocket, who lacked an established brand or previously published work, realized once again that the traditional path wasn\u2019t right for her. She turned to the Collective Book Studio, whose reputation for elevating diverse voices and opening doors for debut authors gave Schocket hope for her book and her ability to reach other adoptive parents. The innovative partnership model the publisher employs gave her \u201ca real opportunity to break into the industry,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Now, Schocket\u2019s poised to help countless other adoptive parents. She never wanted her book to be exclusive to single adoptive parents, she says, but, rather, a resource that welcomes and comforts all parents and children, including adoptive fathers. \u201cMore than anything,\u201d Schocket says, \u201cit\u2019s about the universal journey of searching for love and the joy of finding it when a child enters your life.”<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t A version of this article appeared in the 05\/26\/2025 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline:\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seasoned author and illustrator John Kelly admits that when the Collective Book Studio approached him about turning the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[29677,58310,58311,4068,3444,77,58314,11764,58313,58315,1490,58316,58312,19861,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-132379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-author-interviews","9":"tag-author-profiles","10":"tag-author-quotes","11":"tag-authors","12":"tag-books","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-famous-authors","15":"tag-jk-rowling","16":"tag-michael-crichton","17":"tag-new-authors","18":"tag-obituaries","19":"tag-publishers-weekly","20":"tag-stephanie-meyer","21":"tag-stephen-king","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114572329277199694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}