Bookpleasures.com is delighted to introduce award-winning children’s author Linda Harkey, the imaginative mind behind the beloved Hickory Doc’s Tales series. With stories like The Case of the Missing Pink Piggy, The Great Animal Escape, and Desert Friends, Linda’s 13 books spring from her deep affection for dogs, her passion for teaching, and her love of the natural world.

Linda’s journey includes roles as a schoolteacher, mother, and devoted owner of hunting dogs. For over 22 years, she brought history to life as a volunteer docent at Oklahoma’s National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the Gilcrease Museum, where her creative children’s programs sparked curiosity and wonder in young minds.

Her tales weave together laughter, intrigue, and animal escapades, nurturing early literacy and inspiring children to fall in love with reading.

;re grateful to Linda for joining us and sharing her wisdom on captivating reluctant readers and turning books into adventures for children.

Norm: What practical ways can parents make reading time more engaging without relying on screens? How do you recommend incorporating props or voices from your books, like Blake Jake’s Unusual Day? 

Linda: I am using my book Blake Jake’s Unusual Day (Travels with the Pack) on these two questions. Books are tools that help parents connect with their children. Have parents read the book themselves first. 

Parents could then have their children turn to page 7 and 8 to find the characters of the story. Ask what each animal is? (turkey, dog, bull). 

Tell them this story is about what happens when Blake Jake Turkey and his best friend Homer, a Hereford bull, encounter an annoying hunting dog named Rush, who decides to hunt animals that are larger than he is. 

Then read the story after this with their children or have them read it to you. While reading the story together, when the animals speak the child could make the sound of that animal. You could also use animal puppets to engage the child while reading the story. They can have family conversations about the book with their children at mealtime or bedtime. 

Norm: Why do some early-reader books fail to hold children’s attention, and what simple fixes have you found most effective? How do parents at home replicate those fixes during bedtime reading? 

Linda: One simple fix that I have found that holds children’s attention is to use the five senses (see, smell, taste, hear, and feel) and have them pretend to be in the picture and ask them one or two questions on various pages such as: 

What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? What could you taste? What do you feel or touch? In other words, you draw the children into the story. It is important for them to feel they are participating in the story.  

The five senses are a very simple way of engaging children and do not require props etc. This is easy for parents to do during bedtime reading. 

Norm: Amid declining literacy rates, how can storytelling techniques like those in your books excite kids about reading at home or school? What’s one low-effort technique from your experience that yields big engagement gains?

Linda: I tell the children that as we “walk through the story” we will see vocabulary words that are in black and all caps. They are to raise their hands if they know the definition of that word when I come to it. 

I call on several for the answer (try to use different children for each one), then I go over the answer and continue reading until we get to the next vocabulary word and repeat the above. 

You can take one page and have the children look at the picture and read the text on that page. Then ask them how they might change the text to go with the picture. They love doing this. 

Norm: Librarians and teachers often select books—what should they prioritize in early- reader titles like yours for literacy development? How do mystery and adventure in The Case of the Missing Pink Piggy stand out from typical choices? 

Linda:The vocabulary words in bold throughout the story. 

The activities at the end of the book: writing, drawing, coloring, cutting, solving puzzles, pretend play game, recalling the order of events, and vocabulary word match. 

One review said it best about The Case of the Missing Pink Piggy standing out from typical choices. “Perhaps we’re just making the error of expecting something conventional from a Linda Harkey children’s book. 

Harkey’s children’s books just aren’t conventional. In fact, they tend to be very unconventional. She’s always finding ways to subvert our expectations....Harkey sneaks in some terrific nature and science tidbits. Children are introduced to pack rats, seeds, snow, animal tracks, and the idea that some animals help plants grow by moving seeds around. 

The winter setting feels crisp and cozy, and the illustrations reinforce that feeling with expressive dog faces, playful body language, and a landscape that makes you want to curl up with a blanket and read.” 

Norm: Your series bridges picture books to chapter books with animal mischief—how do you structure plots to ease that transition? Which book in the series best exemplifies this, and why?

Linda: Hickory Doc’s Tales (The Pack: First Generation) was the beginning of my series on the “pack”. Each chapter emphasized one or two of my original five dogs. 

After that book, I wanted more illustrations to go with the text, so I began to “key in” on individual dogs in my series of animal books. My plots are structured depending on what story I want to do. 

I try to have one or two protagonists and one or two antagonists. My transitions between picture and chapter books are dependent on length of plot, characters, age-appropriate etc. My husband and I had over 30 dogs in 56 years so I had plenty of characters and stories to work from. 

The Remarkable Story of Willie the Crow (A Hickory Doc’s Tale) best exemplifies the transition from chapter book to picture book by taking the character of Willie (Chapter 6 – Willie’s First Secret p. 63 in Hickory Doc’s Tales and giving Willie a prominent role – hero in helping to save Patch from drowning in The Remarkable Story of Willie the Crow. 

Norm: Your volunteer work at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and Gilrease Museum shaped children’s curricula—how has that influenced your storytelling style? Can you share a specific museum presentation that sparked an idea for one of your books, like Desert Friends? 

Linda: It influenced my storytelling style by having the children realize that each piece of art work is an entire story or book. It causes me to make my storytelling short, simple and to the point. We only had a few minutes per artwork. 

I love to have the children use their imagination to add to the story such as “Tell me what you would have as an ending or a beginning?”The museum representation visually on Charlie Russell’s artwork – paintings, sculptures, etc. – showing landscape scenes with or without characters in them could have sparked an idea for Desert Friends. 

What really sparked my idea for my book Desert Friends was the many hunting trips my husband took to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona using two of our dogs (Tripod and a friend’s dog, Gator). Mike (known as The Great One to the dogs) would hunt quail. 

Norm: What inspired the Hickory Doc’s Tales series particularly drawing from your experiences as a hunting dog owner? How do real-life behaviors of your dogs translate into the mischief of characters like Willie the Crow or Chatty the Hen Pheasant?

Linda:The memories and life lessons of 30 dogs over a span of 56 years. The encouragement and belief in me given from my husband, Michael. I loved using animals to tell stories to children. Animals have character and personality traits just like humans.

The mischief of characters in The Remarkable Story of Willie the Crow portrays Zeke (younger brother of Doc) perfectly. Zeke was a great hunting dog, but as soon as my husband got another dog, Zeke refused to do the hunting part. 

He would walk next to my husband and when the other dog found the bird, Zeke would run in, grab the bird, and bring back to my husband. Zeke was “Management not Worker.” 

In one page of the text Zeke is talking to Doc about Patch playing with her new friend Willie. This says it all about Zeke. “The rest of the pack, especially Zeke, constantly complained about Patch playing with Willie. 

He didn’t think any respectable hunting dog should be playing with a crow to being with—let alone a crow with bad eyesight! Zeke snarled, “Doc, what would all the other dogs in the neighborhood think of a crow and a hunting dog playing together?” 

The mischief of characters in Chatty the Hen Pheasant portrays Nassau’s character like he really was—loyal, determined, a great hunting dog. 

This is a humorous and action filled story about a smart hen pheasant and a determined labrador Retriever and a hunter that Nassau and the other dogs call the (Great One). 

The determination of Nassau is shown throughout the book especially on p. 19. “Puzzled, I (Nassau) stared at the Great One and barked. I brought a perfectly good pheasant to you. I used my soft mouth just like in training. I didn’t bite down or leave teeth marks. You let her go! My wonderful catch-of-the-day.” 

Norm: How does humor in your books, such as in Solitary Toes and Brown-Headed Cowbirds, build confidence in young readers? What’s a favorite funny moment from your writing process that tested early literacy skills?

Linda: The children can understand the vocabulary and the humor in the story. Example: Under Crunch Through The Garden – Zeke (German Shorthaired Pointer) and B. J. (horse) were in the garden. “A young green snapping turtle just happened to be looking for his lunch right then, and Zeke was on the menu. The turtle fastened its mouth on Zeke’s short tail. Zeke leaped and bounced through the garden. 

At the same time, you could hear his high- pitched bark which sounded like yelp, yelp.”

My stories engage children in the lives of dogs. There are discussions and learning activities about character development and elements of the story. A funny moment was when one child brought a stuff dog named “Zeke” after my character “Zeke” in my book series. The child enjoyed my books. 

Norm: Dogs are central to your inspiration—how does owning hunting dogs influence themes of family and secrets in Doc, Willie, and the Pack? What real pack dynamics from your dogs appear in the story? 

Linda: At times, we had five or six hunting dogs. They were constantly in and out of our house through the doggy door. The dogs in my books are taken from our real dogs at home. 

Their personalities were all different but they were truly a family pack. They enjoyed our 20 acres in Catoosa and were always bringing back critters. 

The real pack dynamics from our dogs were – Zeke was smart, lazy, and tried to boss the others, although they didn’t pay much attention to him. – Doc was the oldest and wisest of the pack and tolerated Zeke – Patch was Doc’s daughter and a terrific hunting dog – Rush was curious and always getting in trouble – Newt was the lab and very sweet and close to Patch and Rush. 

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and your books? 

Linda: harkeyanimaltales.com • storymonsters.com 

Norm: As we conclude our interview, from The Budding Staff in 2005 to your newest releases, how has your writing evolved to better support early literacy? What upcoming project builds on the lessons from Desert Friends’ second edition? 

Linda:My writing has evolved to better support early literacy in three ways: (1) I have the visual related to the text on each page. (2) I have vocabulary words in bold throughout the book. (3) I have Activity pages with answers in the back of the book for early/older elementary.  

My upcoming project that builds on the lessons from Desert Friends 2nd Edition will be The Curious Friendship of Patch and Barney. It is a story about Patch, hunting dog and Barney a skunk. 

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors