PORTLAND, Maine — Children's book author Julie Falatko, who lives in Maine, just released a new story that was inspired by a real White House memo. Falatko stopped by the 207 studio to share more about the story behind "Chester Barkingham Saves the Country" and what she did to bring it to life.
The story follows Chester Barkingham, one of the newest members of the White House, who might just have what it takes to bring people together and find common ground on some big issues, like napping.
Here's part of our conversation with Julie:
Samantha: This is the second children's book that you have put out in a year's time. That is so impressive. You've been so busy!
Julie: Yeah. The funny thing about writing children's books is that you write them, and then they come out years later. That's sort of the happenstance of the timing.
Samantha: This is such a unique book. Where did the idea come from for this?
Julie: Usually my ideas just sort of came to me, but this one I know specifically where it came from. Which was four years ago, right after the 2020 election, talking about dogs coming back into the White House.
This 1992 memo from George H.W. Bush was making the rounds on the internet, and it's where he wrote a memo saying that his dog was now on a diet and don't feed the dog. It was a very serious memo, and it was clear from the memo that the dog is a staff member and had certain privileges that the dog wore an ID.
[It was] very straightforward and serious, and it tickled me the idea of the dog being a member of the staff.
Samantha: Politics can be a hard thing to talk about, to read about. Dogs, puppies, cats definitely make it a lot easier to digest. What are you hoping that people take away from it?
Julie: The dog in the book is Chester Barkingham, so the book is told all in memos, and the dog is adopted. He's a very good boy, and he can see that the legislators are not getting the job done because of all the bickering and mean-spirited name calling.
And, you know, dogs love jobs. Dogs know what a job is. They know how to do their job. They're really good at focusing on the job. And then they also know that the job gets done if you also take breaks for naps and eating delicious food and some praise and running around in circleshe starts writing his own memos.