{"id":110780,"date":"2025-08-01T17:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110780\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T17:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:12:15","slug":"a-chat-with-mccall-hoyle-author-of-forever-ripley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/110780\/","title":{"rendered":"A Chat with McCall Hoyle, Author of Forever Ripley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some friendships last a lifetime. Others last forever. Award-winning author McCall Hoyle affirms the powerful and enduring relationship between dogs and humans in this heartwarming middle grade novel.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n Photograph by Mary-Elizabeth Koch\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

McCall Hoyle has taught grades six through seven for twenty-one years and worked for a few years as a school librarian. She has written several doggie-narrated middle grade novels, including Millie, Stella, and Just Gus. Hoyle trains her own dogs, Apple and Edith, in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains. Her new German Shepherd-narrated book, Forever Ripley<\/strong>, ISBN\u00a09781639934164, comes out in September 2025 from Shadow Mountain Publishing.<\/p>\n

How do you select the breeds for your canine protagonists?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent hundreds of hours in dog training classes, working with a variety of dogs, and have spent hundreds more hours reading books about dog training, dog cognition, and more. I also talk to veterinarians and breeders about the characteristics of the dog\u2019s breed to ensure it will fit the story.<\/p>\n

The American Kennel Club describes the German Shepherd dog as a \u201csteadfast guardian,\u201d which fits Ripley and her story to a T. I think teachers, librarians, and parents will relate to Ripley as much as kids because Ripley is such a maternal figure. Ripley has loved her girl well. She\u2019s done the most important work a dog can do: she\u2019s raised her girl and now she can trust her girl to take care of herself.<\/p>\n

<\/a>How have young readers responded to the recurring themes of grief and death in Forever Ripley?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ripley\u2019s story was inspired by my grief journey after losing my dad unexpectedly and working as a volunteer coordinator at my local hospice. My biggest takeaway was that we grieve different losses differently, and children grieve differently from adults. I think middle grade books like Forever Ripley are the safest place to practice and experience the big feelings we\u2019re all destined to feel.<\/p>\n

Full disclosure: If you\u2019ve ever loved a dog, you\u2019re probably going to cry at some point in this book. But this book is about so much more than loss and grief. It\u2019s a love story between a girl and her dog. Forever Ripley is about healing at its core. It\u2019s as hopeful and comforting as it is sad.<\/p>\n

Your grandmother was the first female editor of an Associated Press newspaper. How did she influence your writing career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My granny taught me that words matter. Books matter. Education matters. Her sister, my great aunt, became a research professor of mathematics at Auburn University in 1965. Their mother was a mountain climber. She ascended most of the major peaks in the Swiss Alps, including the Matterhorn. I don\u2019t think I would have had the grit and determination to stick with writing toward publication without the women who modeled those traits and paved the way for me to believe in myself.
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