Casey Just Wants to Play – New Book About Casey the Farm Dog

Kim Pollock McGrath is the author of four children’s books. This is the fifth, and I think it’s the most endearing.

Perhaps because I love playful dogs.
Perhaps because Kim is a late bloomer – she waited many years before she started writing in midlife.

Perhaps because her sister Staci was the one person who encouraged Kim to write, but then Staci passed away seven years ago and just before Kim’s first book was published.

Perhaps because the vision to write stayed strong with Kim in a period when family challenges could have dried up the vision.

I have watched Kim grow in faith, hope, and love during her midlife writing career. She has developed a cheery personality and become a consistently positive person who tries to get on top of the negatives that life throws at us.

She is proactive when a challenging issue rears its head, and brings initiative and energy to find a solution. She has become a great problem solver.

She loves to hike, to rockhound, and to travel, all with unrestrained enthusiasm. She is a joy to be around.

The Casey book is geared to 2-7 years of age, and is a great book for youngsters to partner read. But there also seems to be another level that appeals to adults, for her books often bring tears to my eyes.

This new book, Casey Just Wants to Play, is based on a real-life farm dog who was Staci’s dog and has lots of personality. Most of the activities in the story are true.

Casey’s book illustrator is Shanzay Saquib from Pakistan, and this is the first time Kim has used Shanzay. From the start they hit it off really well. Kim shared her vision with Shanzay on each page, and Shanzay brought it to life with colorful and realistic illustrations. She was a pleasure to work with, and Shanzay will also be illustrating Kim’s next book.

Kim’s next book, her sixth, will be called Casey Just Wants to Help, a follow-up story about Casey The Farm Dog. This book will be based on all the things Casey does on the farm to help.

What is different about Kim’s books? Kim says that each of her books are geared to learning. They feature things like sequence, vocabulary, rhyming, prediction, and facts about animals. This is not too surprising since Kim taught first grade elementary school for almost 30 years.

Kim states that this first new Casey book is written in honor of her sister Staci who died of breast cancer, and in honor of her dad who passed away four months after Staci. They are featured in the book as the farmer and the farmer’s wife.

The book can be purchased at Amazon. Click here, or on the picture.

All of Kim’s books are listed in her website, kimmcgrath.net.

Kim lives in Independence, Kansas, but spends time in Dallas, Texas, where two of her children, and two grand-children, live.

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Greetings from The Gray Nomad of New Mexico (who is Kim’s step-dad) in a time that we call the dog days of August in the USA.
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If you want to grow and become vibrant, successful and alive,
live all your life on tiptoe stretching and reaching for new things.
[Roko Paskov]