Series & Title: An Alice and Friends Book: Splotch
Authors: Anne Rothman-Hicks and Kenneth Hicks
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Release Date: January 16, 2018
Genre: Contemporary, Middle-Grade, Fantasy
ARC Received From & Hosted By: RABT Book Tours
Alice’s parents refuse to let her have a dog, so when Alice sees a paint stain on the sidewalk that looks like a dog, she decides that she will make him a virtual pet. She calls him Splotch and downloads a picture of him to her computer. To her surprise, he escapes from the computer and begins to act as Alice’s self-appointed protector. Unfortunately, he sees most people as potential enemies of Alice, including her teacher and the school principal, and he is not shy about giving those various enemies a bite. When Splotch starts to attack Alice’s best friend, Alice knows there is a big problem. But how will she get Splotch to stop being a guard dog and go back into the computer?
Imagination meets wishful thinking resulting in the unbelievable.
In the mind of most children, there resides an imaginary friend. It might be in the shape of a person, an animal, or something else. What would happen if that imaginary friend came to life? Would they be all that child hoped they'd be? Or would they be too much?
That's Alice's dog, Splotch. Birthed through the magic of social media and imagination, the paint splatter shaped like a dog wound up causing more trouble than she believed it could. Splotch was her protector who doled out nips and growls if Alice so much as thought someone was against her. Good dog? Absolutely. Bad dog? Well... He didn't know better, so maybe?
I admired Alice's friend, Hannah, and her so-called nemesis, Johnny. They came to her defense even when I felt she didn't deserve it, but that's a sign of good friends. They tell the truth even if you don't want to hear it (a lesson Alice learned thanks to Splotch) and will stand beside you instead of leaving you to fall.
A feel-good short story with a valuable lesson about friendship, and encouragement to use your imagination. In a day and age when technology makes entertainment so readily available, this story reminds you of a time when that imaginary friend was who you played with, had adventures with, got in trouble with, laughed and cried with. So maybe let's encourage that kind of entertainment in our kids before settling them in for a YouTube video or a ninety minute film.
Anne Rothman-Hicks is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College where, in 1969, at a college dance, she met a student from Haverford named Kenneth Hicks. They have been together pretty much ever since, getting married, having children, writing books, making art, and generally conspiring to live lives that are happy, creative, and good.
Anne and Ken’s most recent novels and stories are set in New York City, where they have lived for most of their married lives.
Their middle reader series, Alice and Friends, features Alice, a 10-year-old girl with a vivid imagination that gets her into and out of trouble. The titles are, STONE FACES, BROWNSTONE FACES, and SPLOTCH.
In Ken and Anne’s tween book, THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM, Jennifer and James find a pigeon in Central Park whose foot was caught in a bit of string attached to a fence. Only this pigeon was actually a man before he was turned into a pigeon over a hundred years earlier. Now he needs some help to be turned back into a man before a certain hawk captures and eats him instead.
A sequel, REMEMBERING THOMAS, has been published by MuseItUp Publishing in March of 2018.
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