LYNN — The former principal of Washington Elementary School, Jeffrey Barile, published his first children’s book, titled “Dougie and Sammy: The Story of an Unlikely Friendship.”
The story discusses the friendship between a dog, Dougie, and a squirrel, Sammy, and focuses on the bond made between the two, despite their differences.
Barile began writing the book a couple of years ago, inspired by walks with his granddog Dougie. When he was walking the dog through the park one day, he said Dougie kept barking at the squirrels running by. As a friendly dog, Barile said he thought Dougie was just trying to talk to and play with the squirrels.
“There’s a line in the book, where I say, ‘Doug, what would you say if you could talk to him,'” Barile said.
This question snowballed into the book — which was published last month — that shows being different is OK.
“It was based on my relationship with Dougie and the fact that he was a rescue dog,” Barile said.
Dougie is a rescue who gets teased about his mixed-breed background, but the dog embraces who he is, as well as his gold fur, and he finds a friend in Sammy, who doesn’t judge him for who he is or what he looks like.
In the book, Dougie says, “I can be friends with any dog, but I want to be friends with somebody different. I want to think outside of the box.”
Barile said he wrote the book as if he were teaching it to a third or fourth grade class, having taught fourth grade himself.
“I put some vocabulary words in that would be challenging to them,” Barile said.
When he was principal, he said there was a large focus on good, core virtues, including being kind and empathetic. Some of this comes out in the book, he said, discussing how people should treat others.
“Just because someone doesn’t look like you or act like you doesn’t mean that you can’t become friends with them,” Barile said. “One of the big pushes, besides just writing the book, was how I could teach it and get a message across to the kids about being responsible, kind, empathetic and honest.”
Barile said he used his imagination to create the interactions and relationships between Dougie and Sammy, having them eventually become friends.
Overall, Barile said writing the book was a long process, but he is really happy with how it came out.
The book also includes illustrations by Samara DiMouro, who is married to the nephew of Barile’s sister-in-law. He also turned to a former coworker, Kathy Parker — who published two of her own children’s books — for suggestions and ideas on his drafts.
Between the family ties for the art and his wife and friends helping with the edits, Barile said he took comfort in knowing he had a number of people to provide him with support and guidance throughout the process of writing his first book.
His hope for this book is that it can be taught to children in elementary schools to highlight the important messages that it conveys and encourage the students to make predictions about the friendship and the ending of the book. Barile left the ending up in the air so his readers can use their imaginations regarding what happens next.
Barile is donating all of the sales to the Northeast Animal Shelter and the Sunny Meadow Sanctuary.
The book can be purchased on Amazon for $5 to $12.
