Canine character: Summerlin-area author’s real-life basset hound inspires children’s books

When Donna Maguire wasn’t busy with her marketing job, she spent much of her time caring for family and helping to raise her sister’s three boys. One of them became ill and died at age 31. Even though she knew his passing was inevitable, Maguire said the loss drained her and left her numb.

“I didn’t care,” she said. “I didn’t care about anything.”

Then her daughter encouraged her to go to a local pet store to see a basset hound puppy it had for sale.

“There he was, tripping over his ears,” said Maguire, a Summerlin-area resident. “I waited two weeks. I said, ‘If he’s still there, then it was meant to be.’ ”

He was still there. She named him Winston.

She said having the puppy brought her out of her emotional funk and inspired a new chapter in her life: becoming an author. She said the idea came from when she’d take Winston to the park and he’d insist on greeting every child.

“He’s a lover,” she said. “Once he sees a child, if we don’t go up to that child, he sits his bottom down, and he won’t move. … I think he (wants to) go home with them.”

The children’s attraction to Winston was instant, as well.

It inspired Maguire to use her dog — along with her illustrations of him — as the subject of children’s books that were meant for her grandchildren: Olivia, 3, and Aiden, 1½.

“I originally wrote them for my grand babies,” she said of her books. “I wasn’t planning on selling them.”

She said her daughter, Kaitlyn, had a weight issue as a child and was bullied at school. Overcoming that challenge was the theme that Maguire intended to forward in her book.

“I wanted children to know that even though they might be different — if they have huge ears or a big nose, like a basset hound does — it’s special to you,” she said.

Maguire wrote the first book in the series, “The Wacky World of Silly Willy Winston: An Ordinary Pet with Extraordinary Adventures,” in March 2015. A month later, she wrote “Silly Willy Winston in the Adventures of Super Snout: Have NO Fear,” followed by more in rapid succession, all featuring Winston. There are five books.

With each new addition to the series, the focus changed from accepting oneself to overcoming fear, from facing new challenges to how animals can morph into something else, such as how tadpoles become frogs. The book asks, “What would you change about yourself?”

A local author told Maguire about self-publishing the books, and she learned to format her stories and added stock photography from the Internet to place Winston in different locations.

Charity Martinez of 5 Girls Book Reviews out of Bastrop, Texas, was sent a copy for review. Her site, 5girlsbookreviews.blogspot.com, focuses on children’s and young adult books. Her daughter, Angelina, reviewed the book for the site.

“I really liked Silly Willy Winston (books),” the 9-year-old said. “My favorite was the one where he’s in the desert because he helps his friends and stuff.”

Why have a 9-year-old child review a book?

“The reason I started the blog was for publishers to get honest feedback from their targeted audience,” Martinez said. “It’s from-the-mouth-of-babes kind of feedback.”

Maguire said she always keeps in mind that her audience is not just children but their parents, as well, because they’re the ones who can write reviews and clue in other parents to her series.

Maguire’s books can be found on Amazon.com. For more information, visit facebook.com/sillywillywinston.

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.