Stephanie Gibeault joined Social Media Manager Cat Galeano on Instagram Live to celebrate the book birthday for Dog Senses: How Our Furry Friends Experience the World, and to talk about how the Highlights Foundation was part of her writing journey.

Watch the conversation or read the full transcript below. (Please note: closed captions are being added to the video below. When they are finished, you can see them by hovering over the bottom of the video and choosing the “CC” icon.)

FULL Transcript:

Cat:
I am so excited to be here and it’s a big hello to our Highlights Foundation family. We’re so happy to have you here. Thank you so much for being here with us this afternoon. For those that may not know me, I’m Cat Galliano, my pronouns are she/her. I’m the Social Media Manager at the Highlights Foundation, aka the person always resharing your posts/the person who’s commenting with blue and green hearts on your post? That’s me. I’m joining you from Westchester, NY on the traditional lands of the Seewanoy people and apart from all the things that I get to do at the Highlights Foundation, one of my greatest joys is celebrating the book birthdays of the community members, faculty and friends that make up the Highlights Foundation. Because all your wins are our wins!

So this is very very special for me and today I have the honor of celebrating Stephanie Gibeault and her newest baby; her newest book baby, a nonfiction middle grade titled Making Sense of Dog Senses: How Our Furry Friends Experience the World. Yay, there it is. It is illustrated by Raz Latif. Stephanie has also taught the Rock Your Research Mini and a research intensive with us. So we are extra-excited to have you, but before we dive in, I just want to remind our viewers that joining in on any Highlights Foundation sessions, to do so with no hate, no harm and no harassment of any kind.

Now let’s get started. How are you feeling? Publishing day was last week, so we are, just you know, still in celebration mode, frankly. I think we should be celebrating all month, so I think you know a week is nothing. So how are you feeling after the, the the book has now made its way into the world?

Stephanie:
I’m feeling so excited and so happy to see it. And you’re right, I think there’s a lot of “downs” on the publishing roller coaster. So let’s celebrate the “ups” for as long as we can. So I think birthday week sounds good to me. Yeah, I’m very excited to see it out in the world after the journey it’s taken. I, I went to the bookstore, I saw it on the shelf on release day. And I nearly cried in the bookstore. I was so excited to see it there. I think that never gets old, right? Seeing your book in the bookstore. But at the same time, I feel like this is a very busy, chaotic time because I have another middle grade nonfiction launching on May the 7th. So I’m trying to savor Making Sense of Dog Senses while prepping for Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees and Other Animals with Mind-blowing Mathematical Abilities. So it’s a lot in a short period of time.

Cat:
I bet. Oh my gosh. I, I think we’re gonna have to just talk next month about that other book. Just so you know, I’m, I’m happy to do this again. Please–this could be this could be a thing. I also just wanted to tell people that I got a chance to read the book and as someone who has never owned a pet but is a huge dog lover, I cannot tell you how every single person needs this book. And I might, I mean, that so wholeheartedly because our pets are just such a part of our lives. Like they are truly a family member and this sort of gave me an a really unbelievable insight on how they function and so I was just like tearing through it and then going back and I’m gonna go gift this to like every dog person I know, so I’m like it was just so like– Stephanie, thank you for sharing this with the world. Because, like our, our furry friends are so important, so the fact that we get to like understand them in a way that like you know, scientifically the way that you wrote this. I’m just like, oh, my God, blown away. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Was such a fun read, such a fun read. So thank you for the opportunity for letting me read it ahead of time. Anyway…

Stephanie:
Thank you for your kind words.

Cat:
OK, enough flowers. We’ll get into our second question. Can you talk a little bit about how the, how the idea of this book came to you and how your process was of getting that onto the page.

Stephanie:
Yes. So I’ve always loved animals like since, you know, I was first born. And after years as a biologist, I ended up taking a path where I became a certified professional dog trainer and I own a Chihuahua cross who’s 17 1/2 now. And his favorite pastime is sleeping on the couch, but I learned so much from him as well as from all the dog training. And I noticed a lot of my dog training clients kept interpreting their dogs’ behavior through a human lens. And they were treating them as furry little people. And I don’t mean to diminish them in any way when I say this, but they are dogs. They are not furry little people, and that’s just as magnificent. But it’s not the same. And I think what I really wanted to do was help kids understand that dog lens, to see the world through the eyes of their dog and the nose of their dog and the ears of their dog, right? All the senses that the dogs have, so that was really where I think that idea came from. But it was a five year journey from the idea to the actual book. So I came up with the concept in 2019 and I began to put it on paper in June of that year and it turned into a book proposal. So for people who aren’t familiar with nonfiction for middle grade, YA and adult, you don’t write the book. You write a book proposal instead, which is like a giant sales document and sample chapters and the market and all the comp titles. And I put that together, it went on sub, that book proposal, in February of 2021. I had two publishers that were interested in it, so I met with the different editors and we discussed their vision and it sold to Owl Kids in September of that same year, 2021. I really liked the vision Owl Kids had for the book, but now that it was sold, I had to actually write it. So I only had four months to produce the first draft of the book, and then three months after that to revise it to what ended up being the final version. So it was a very truncated experience to come, come in and and write it after selling it that way. So that was sort of interesting. The book was announced in June 2022, and then it just released on April 15th. So that’s sort of the journey of of how it went from the idea to finally getting it on the page.

Cat:
It’s–and like I don’t write nonfiction, so hearing this is like so fascinating. Like you know, you don’t even go and write the thing, you write like the book proposal and setting that up as a sales document, like that makes so much sense. And then having that short, short time to like research right? Like I can’t even imagine. Oh my gosh. Well, it is out in the world, people so go run and get it. Because it is, it is one amazing book. Now we’re going to pivot and we’re going to talk about how your journey, what your journey has been and how the Highlights Foundation has played a part in it.

Stephanie:
Absolutely. I just want to start out by saying Highlights is magical and I don’t say that lightly. There’s just something when you go, I mean, the online events are incredible. But when you go in person, it’s like there’s twinkles in the air. There’s just inspiration everywhere. It’s an incredible place. So it played quite a role for me. Now, my writing journey from like from the long, the long story of the reading journey is I won my first writing contest in Grade 3. So I guess I started this a long, long time ago. It was a book. It was writing a story based on the book Norbert Nipkin if anybody’s familiar with that, I’m aging myself there. But that was written by Robert McConnell and illustrated by Steve Pilcher and I was so excited to meet the author and win the writing contest. But then I didn’t write stories for children again, until 2011. I did a lot of academic writing. But you think of a story like that, you know, maybe I would have kept it up, but I didn’t.

But in 2011 I started to write stories for my niece and nephew. And it was just for them. And just for fun. But in 2016, I thought no, I wwant to get serious with this and I went to my first writing conference and I realized “there’s so much you don’t know.” So then I threw myself into workshops and courses and reading craft books. And then in fall of 2017, I went to my first Highlights in-person retreat and that was Getting Your Novel Unstuck with Chris Tebbetts and Elise Broach. And it was phenomenal just to be surrounded by other writers. And we all have the same dreams and goals, and learning about humor from Chris. I mean, he gave me the assignment of watching The Simpsons to learn how to write humor, and that was pretty good homework. But that was amazing. I never, and I’m so grateful because I went on a partial scholarship and that made such a difference to me as well. And I never finished–Well, I shouldn’t say–I did finish that middle grade novel. But it never went anywhere except the desk drawer, but that was still transformative.

And then in September 2019, I went back to Highlights and I did another retreat and again on partial scholarship which I’m so grateful for and that was Nuts and Bolts of Science Writing with Heather Montgomery, Miranda Paul and Jennifer Swanson. And that changed the whole trajectory of my journey. It had never sort of crossed my mind before to go in that direction, embrace science writing. Embrace my biology background and it, it just I learned about book proposals and I learned about the market, and I learned about structure and so many incredible key things. That was fantastic. And then I started querying agents in earnest in 2020. I did it a little earlier, when I shouldn’t have. But I started in earnest in 2020, when I had my book proposals in order and then I signed with my amazing agent, Jacqui Lipton at the Tobias Literary Agency in January of 2021. Based on those proposals that I developed from the Highlights Foundation retreat and then that first project to go on sub the next month was Making Sense of Dog Senses and then that’s where the journey–you know, the rest of the story.

Cat:
That’s amazing. I just want to give a shout out to Jacqui, I did see that she just popped in. So hi, Jacqui. It was like perfect immaculate timing, that is so special. Thank you for sharing that. Because obviously prepandemic, we were strictly in person, but post pandemic we’ve been online. So it’s been so beautiful to see that that magic sort of translate online because so, so many people were like, you know “that magic can’t be replicated.” Of course it can’t, but I’m so glad that it has been able to translate online. And of course, now you teach with us. So this is such like a beautiful story to hear how you, you it was kind of like a collision of all the things you knew how to do, and all the courses you took, and then it sort of just kind of like came together and put you in that path and now? You write these amazing nonfiction children’s books and you teach with us and it’s just such an amazing, you know, overall to see all of that. So thank you for sharing, sharing with us. I’m curious. Because I’m a former journalist, so research is something I do love to do and enjoy doing. So can you walk us through your research aspect for this book? And again, how you took all that information that is research and then condensed it in a way for young readers.

Stephanie:
Yes, it was a challenge as you will appreciate, of having done that yourself. I have a biology background. I worked for years as a biologist, so research is sort of my superpower. I love it and I really I love digging deep into things and I’m always questioning: “Well, let me get to the source of that.” So I love that part, but for this book I had to know all about dog senses, but then human senses as well, to compare and show kids where the differences and similarities are. So it was a huge amount of material to understand and kind of put together. So that was the difficult part. I used a lot of academic articles, journal articles, so research studies from scientists. I used a lot of books. I used magazine articles like so, I was looking all over the place and trying to synthesize this information and I looked for the facts that either made me say WOW or EWWW. Because I thought that was the stuff that was the most kid-friendly, the most kid-relatable.

Because some of the things are fascinating to me as a former biologist. But maybe not to a 10 year old. So you have to really look at it through that kid-centric lens when you’re choosing and a lot of the material that you find out ends up on the cutting room floor because it just doesn’t make the WOW or the EWWW cut, right? So it was challenging to find those those, those nuggets that I thought the kids would appreciate the most. And then, of course, in nonfiction, you have to scaffold the information with facts, that children already know. You can’t just jump into evolution without explaining what you mean by that. So that was the other challenge. I had to make sure I was putting everything at the right level and building it up based on the knowledge base that the readers would already have. And of course I did a lot of rewriting and I want to shout out to my critique partners, The Word Weavers who I know some of them are here today. So thank you so much. And my amazing Owl Dids editor Stacey Roderick. We went back and forth and you know “this isn’t, you know, kid friendly enough for this fact. Get deeper here.” So I had a lot of help from people as well to kind of synthesize it all onto something that hopefully kids really find fascinating.

Cat:
Yeah, because like there was one that I found I, I literally wrote it in my notes. It was like the how you basically said that the fire hydrant is essentially like a “catchup place for neighbor, neighborhood gossip.” And I was like: that is hysterical because of course, like I don’t have any pets, but I’ve been dog-sitting and dog-walking multiple times and so I’m just like what is it about the fire hydrant every time? And when I read this, I was like, oh my God. That makes so much sense. It’s literally they’re just sniffing out like what’s going on in the neighborhood? And I was like, what a perfect example.

So like, there’s so many nuggets like that in the book. So it, it just kind of like-olisten, you had so many aha moments about things that just started clicking it about your pets. And I’m like, Oh my God. Yes, OK, yes. Ohh, so and then there was like one about the dirty diaper, which I’m not gonna spoil cause you have to read it like I was cracking up about. Like why, ewww so gross, but like then you make sense. It was oh, so many good nuggets. Everyone, you have to read it. It’s so good.

So my last question, which I can’t believe we’re heading to the end of this already. But my last question is: what do you hope kids will take away from your book?

Stephanie:
So there’s a lot of things I hope they take away. But I think the biggest one for me is a, is a sense of awe–the WOW. They are dogs, cool. Because they’re dogs, not furty little humans that just…appreciation for the fascinating facts. I think that is my maybe number one goal, but I also want them to appreciate the dog’s point of view. There’s a social emotional learning aspect, very subtly in the book that looks through someone else’s eyes. And see things from how it is for them and I want them to get that as well to really think about “this is how it is to my pet.” And then maybe everybody has their own unique perspective, right? Not just me and my dog. I also think because they can learn to appreciate that their dog has different needs and different drives, they can become better caretakers for their pets because they’re thinking about their dog’s needs. Not about what would I want right now, but what would my dog. Like you said about the fire hydrant. So many people drag their dog past the fire hydrant and you’re spoiling your dog’s walk. That’s what they wanted to sniff, and you just ruined it for them. So I think kids can be better caretakers if they appreciate those aspects of their pet. And finally, just for kids to learn more about science and biology and to be excited to learn more about animals in general, I think would be another really cool thing for them to take away.

Cat:
Yeah, and like, what better way than to start with the pet that lives in your home? The animal that lives in your home, and that’s, that’s essentially a part of your family. So like what a perfect way to start learning than the person you love and who spends, you know who is part of the family photos, who is part of the family functions and the gatherings. So it was just, oh, my God, what a delightful book. Stephanie, thank you so much for, for, for reaching out to us, for being here with us. For sharing your work with me and I had such a,such a great time reading. Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap up?

Stephanie:
I would like to just say thank you again for celebrating with me. I think having started at that first Highlights retreat not long after I’d become serious about this. Then to teaching for Highlights and doing this celebration is like a dream come true. And I’m really so grateful for the opportunity. So thank you so much and thank you to everybody who’s watching and and for all your support with the book.

Cat:
And there was one, some person just wrote “yay science!” I second that. That was, like, so fun. This is also our first nonfiction book birthday celebration. So this is so fun for me to read something different and wonderful and… Congratulations again on your new story and for those that may want to order a copy, you can always purchase Stephanie’s books at our virtual bookshop, powered by bookshop.org. Please look out on our website, because Stephanie might be teaching Rock Your Research again at some point this year, so take a look at our website For more information and updates.

Also, Stephanie mentioned her second book is coming out next month which you know. We might have a second conversation for that, but in the meantime, just remember, it’s coming out very soon. And thank you again, Stephanie, for joining us. Please do yourself a favor, especially if you have a furry best friend. Get this book you just like, learn so much more about your animal and like Stephanie mentioned, become a better caretaker. So thank you so much everyone for joining us and all the beautiful comments. I haven’t seen any questions from everybody, it’s kind of just love, love, love, love, which is awesome too, and I really appreciate that. But yes, in that case I, let me just do one quick scroll more. Yep, it’s just lots and lots of love.

Stephanie:
I have one thing before we go Cat, that I completely forgot to mention. So Making Sense of Dog Senses is a middle grade. There’s a little glitch on Amazon right now that we’re trying to fix where it says picture book. But it’s actually a middle grade and what I wanted to say is there is a middle grade coming out–sorry, a picture book coming out next year–with Owl Kids, that will be… It’s called Dogs Versus Humans: A Battle of–sorry, A Showdown of the Senses, and it’s sort of a battle between humans and and dogs and their senses for a picture book audience, so I just wanted to clarify this one was middle grade and there will be a picture book coming out next year.

Cat:
Perfect. Yeah. Just because there is illustrations, just want to clarify, it is a middle grade that is very research-heavy and text-heavy, but for the win, there’ll be a picture book version next year. So we all win. So if you can wait till next year; if not, just get it this year and you know, read it for yourself and then explain it to your, to your littles so… Thank you so much for joining us. Everyone have a great rest of your day, Stephanie, and thank you again everyone.

Stephanie:
Thank you everyone, thank you Cat!