by Ardeana Hamlin
of The Weekly Staff
One of the things Dottie Boynton of Bradley feels strongly about is bullying. Once when discussing with a friend the problem that haunts children at school and on the playground, she suggested that he write a book for children about the subject. Instead, “He told me I should write it,” Boynton said. So she did.
“I thought about [how I would] write it for several months, and it took me several months to write,” she said. To gain insight into the problem, she talked with friends who are teachers about bullying at schools
Boynton’s story concerns Pippi and Frieda who attend school together. The two become friends, but one day Frieda begins to bully Pippi. What happens after that is a tale of kindness, compassion and wise loving kindness on the part of Pippi’s mother.
“There has been a lot of publicity about bullying. I wanted to write a book that changes that mindset, that would empower children on either end of the spectrum,” said Boynton, a realtor of 25 years who works for Bangor Realty. “I thought if children were introduced to the story early on it could change the outcome — that was what I hoped to do.”
She hopes that book will enlighten both the child who bullies and the one who is bullied. “When parents read the book with their children, I hope it will provoke discussion, and enlightens the bullied child that it isn’t about him, that the child who bullies needs resources to help him so he can have a good future,” said Boynton, who grew up in the Raymond area, and who moved to the Bangor area in the late 1960s.
Although bullying is a serious subject, Boynton has approached it with compassion in a way that children can easily grasp, using characters that are engaging. The book, she said is aimed at children ages 6 to 10. Boynton said she found the book’s illustrator, Jeffrey Duckworth, online. “He did exactly as I asked him. I sent him a photo of my dog and asked him to make Pippi look like that,” she said.
Boynton said she had two sources of inspiration for writing her book. One was her mini-Australian shepherd dog, named Pippi, that became the model for the character Pippi in the book, and the children’s stories written by British author Beatrix Potter.
“I love Beatrix Potter stories — I read them to my children — I love the little animals in the stories and the lessons that are inherent in them.” When her children were young, she said, she sometimes thought she might like to write a children’s story someday.
Boynton also has a second book, “The Tails of Pippi Puppy and Frieda Fox: A New Adventure,” poised to be published in November or December. “All my books will have a lesson,” she said.
“The Tails of Pippi Puppy and Frieda Fox” is available at The Briar Patch bookstore in Bangor.