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Lucy's
Storybook Life
by Andrew Waters
Lucy
leads a storybook life. So far she has joined the rodeo, been
to outer space and saved the world - not bad for a 3-year-old
Chihuahua.
"Lucy is very feisty," says Debbie D'Andrea of her adventurous
dog, who hasn't actually been in a spaceship or ridden a rodeo
bull but does star in a series of children's books in which
she appears to do so. D'Andrea is the owner of Playhouse Publishing,
a children's book publisher in Akron, Ohio. Two years ago,
she had the idea of having Lucy star in her own series of
children's adventures. "Because I don't have any more babies
in my house, I started dressing Lucy up in clothes as a joke,"
recalls the mother of two and former school psychologist.
"Everyone thought it was so funny that we started taking pictures
of her. Then we thought, 'Oh my gosh, wouldn't this be cute
if we incorporated some of these pictures into a story about
a little dog and her friends.'"
The idea
sprung from the company's other successful book series. D'Andrea's
first line of children's books were interactive "Picture Me"
books, featuring space to slip a child's photograph into various
costumes and settings, so the child actually "starred" in
the book. "Then we started doing dress-up books with babies,
where we dressed babies in costumes, took their pictures and
put them in the stories," D'Andrea recalls. "That's when we
really started getting into photography."
To create
the books, published under the series title "Little Lucy and
Friends," D'Andrea and her staff first come up with a story
concept that is appropriate for their target audience of children
ages 4 to 8. They then hire freelance writers, illustrators
and costume designers to bring Lucy's adventures to life.
The costumed dogs are photographed digitally, the pictures
are cropped and all the elements - illustrations, photographs,
clay models and text - are assembled on the computer using
a layered process that gives added dimension and depth. "The
reason all of our books look very interesting and very real
- aside from the fact that the characters are real dogs dressed
in real clothes - is because all of the images that are used
for the background are three dimensional," D'Andrea explains.
Although
putting the books together requires the hard work of many
talented people and dogs, the secret ingredient is bologna.
"Lucy will do anything you want her to do for bologna," she
says. "She'll look anywhere you want her to look, she'll even
dance. When we want her to look really excited we'll put another
dog with her so there's competition for the bologna."
Bologna
inspires Lucy's work, but the dog also possesses natural modeling
talent. "What makes her so good, as far as photographing for
these books, is her little black mouth," says D'Andrea of
her small, doe-eyed Chihuahua. "It almost looks like she's
smiling. She also has eyebrows, which is another human-like
characteristic that makes her face very expressive. When she
moves her eyebrows up and down she makes all different kinds
of facial expressions."
No prima
donna, Lucy gets along well with her co-stars, which include
a housemate and fellow Chihuahua named Rico, who plays Lucy's
pal Verne. A Chinese crested plays Mrs. Bowser, the teacher.
A Yorkshire terrier, another Chihuahua and a toy poodle round
out the cast of Lucy's adventurous schoolmates. "Lucy isn't
temperamental at all," says D'Andrea of her featured star.
"She just gets up there and does her job."
D'Andrea
shares a similar work ethic with her pet/star. A native of
northern Virginia, D'Andrea moved to Akron to be closer to
her husband's family. She began publishing children's books
13 years ago as a way to work and stay home with her young
children. Her innovative "Picture Me" books found a profitable
niche in the photography market, allowing her to build her
company. Playhouse Publishing now has 12 full-time employees
and several popular lines of children's books available in
book and photography retailers throughout the country.
For More Information
To learn
more about the adventures of Lucy and her storybook friends,
visit her Web site at http://www.littlelucyandfriends.com
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