author/illustrator: Victor D.O. Santos/Dena Seiferling
ages: 4+
40 pages
20.3 x 25.4 cm
hardcover
French/English
Comme des géants (Canada)
Rights sold: English
Things I Learned from My Dog
A child’s heartfelt friendship with its dog becomes an unexpected source of life’s most important lessons.
Out with his mother at the Sunday market, a six-year old boy asks her if they can buy a dog — and the answer reshapes his entire childhood.
Over the course of the next decade, Luna, his best friend and the dog from that fateful day, is not only by his side during the most important moments, but also unknowingly the one who teaches him some of the most valuable lessons he’ll ever learn.
Things I Learned From My Dog shows us the extent to which friendship, love, and loss can guide our paths and shape us into the people we will become.THE AUTHOR
Victor D.O. Santos is a Brazilian-American author and professional linguist who penned and self published his first picture book as a gift to his son in 2020. After his eighth self-published effort My Dad, My Rock locked down a Kirkus Star and a spot on Kirkus’s Best Books of 2022 list, he began drawing the attention of publishers worldwide. Today, he is best known for the internationally acclaimed picture book What Makes Us Human, selected to the prestigious White Ravens 2023 catalogue and a special exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and translated into 30 languages.
THE ILLUSTRATOR
Dena Seiferling is a Canadian artist specializing in illustration and sculpting, who has a soft spot for animals and nature. A graduate of Alberta University of the Arts, where she continues to teach, Seiferling is most notably a 2022 recipient of the New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book award and a 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award nominee (Children’s Literature - Illustration). Her needle-felting art has also been featured by Disney. She lives in Calgary.
