Hi, my name's Avery Monsen.
I wanna tell you about my amazing dog Lucy.
She's got short little legs, but a very long body.
So long, in fact, that I had to write a book about it.
Now, mostly it's a very silly story about a very silly dog.
But secretly, it's about loving your body no matter what shape it is.
Here, follow me.
♪ Come on an adventure ♪
♪ What will we read today? ♪
♪ Discover all the treasures on every single page ♪
♪ Stories take you places you've never been before ♪
♪ Read with me and you will see ♪
♪ New worlds, new friends, and more ♪
♪ Come on an adventure ♪
♪ What will we read today? ♪
- Avery: Here I come! - All: Wow!
Whoa. Okay.
Whoa!
- Oh! All right. - ( cheering )
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Hey, everybody, my name's Avery Monsen,
and I am an author and illustrator.
- Do you guys know what that means? - Yeah.
It means I write the words
and I draw the pictures for picture books.
Today I'm going to read a book that I wrote
called "I Am the Longest Dog!" by Avery Monsen.
That's me. See, there it is. Oh, thank you very much.
The book will take a bow, too.
- Thank you. Okay, you guys ready? - Yes!
Okay, here we go.
My name is Lucy. I am the longest dog.
This is where I start. I keep going, too.
I'm telling you, I am a very long dog.
Some people say that I'm too long, but I don't listen to that nonsense.
I'm a long doggie, and that's just fine by me.
I think people should love themselves no matter what shape they are.
Then she says, "Oh, I'm definitely telling Sandra about this."
And her dog looks scared. He goes...
I wonder what she was going to tell her friend Sandra.
I couldn't tell if that lady was nice or not.
Here's some things that I'm longer than.
A stretch limo.
- Pretty long, right? - Mm-hmm.
Avery: A big blue whale. Very long.
A stretch limo for the big blue whale
so he can drive around and go to whale parties and stuff.
Now, I don't know if this exists,
but it would probably be super long!
And still, I'm longer, y'all.
She was very, very long.
But being a long dog isn't always easy.
I don't fit dog houses.
Look, she crashed through her dog house.
"Oh, no, we gotta get a new dog house!
Oh, no, not again!
Three doghouses in one day?"
I can't go on rides in the car.
Look, she'd get all tangled up.
And I'm not great at sitting on laps.
"Yeah, this dog might be too long."
No way! I am long, but I'm not too long!
This is the only body I've got, and I think it's awesome!
Everyone's body is perfect the way it is.
But she keeps going.
Okay, okay, this has gone on long enough.
On the next page, you'll finally see my head.
- Ready? - Yeah!
- Yeah. Okay. Okay, here we go. - I'm very excited.
What? Gotcha!
Ha, ha, ha!
Oh, man. Classic long dog joke.
You say you're gonna show your face,
and then, bam!
That body just keeps going.
No end in sight, baby!
And who knows where it stops? Maybe it never stops.
- This signs says "This Way, San Francisco." - I've been there before.
London, This Way. Buenos Aires, This Way.
- I wanna go there. - This Way, More Dog.
- This is a long dog, you guys. - A very long doggie.
- Yes. - Maybe that long dog bod
goes over tall mountains and down through deep valleys,
through hot dry desert,
and cold wet oceans.
Maybe it reaches out past the moon and the stars,
past everything that anyone has ever dreamed of!
Maybe it goes on forever and even more after that.
She's here, there, everywhere.
Lucy's lucky that she got to go to so many places.
Ooh, got you again.
This is where I stop.
( cheering )
Oh. Another dog.
Nice to meet you, dog.
I said, nice to meet you, dog.
She was like, "Hello?"
Sniff, sniff. Eww!
Lucy, that's gross!
And then the last page-- look at this.
Whoa!
And you can see that the dog that Lucy was talking to,
that was her own bottom
because she reached all the way around the world.
- Oh, my gosh. - Wait, what?
She was sniffing her own butt.
She says, "Whoops, that's just me."
I told you, I'm an extremely long dog.
I'm longer than my cousin's fish.
I'm longer than her tank.
I'm longer than three of my friends.
I'm longer than the ruler when it's in its small form.
I think she could stretch all the way to the furthest planet.
I think she could.
And then down in the bottom, the moon says,
"Oh, I'm definitely telling Venus about this."
And that is the end of "I Am the Longest Dog!"
( cheering )
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Now, you guys, if you guys have any questions, I would love to answer them.
Oh! I see some hands over here. Did you have a question?
Yes. So, it's not really a question,
but I remember when people used to stare at me
- because I'm in a wheelchair. - Uh-huh.
And I kind of relate to this book because, like,
even though you look different
doesn't mean that you can't do great things.
Oh, my goodness.
That is exactly why I wrote the book.
That is such a great thing to say!
Thank you so much.
Yeah, so I have at home a little dog named Lucy
and she has a very long body.
And when we would go on walks, people would point at her and say,
"Hey, that's a long dog."
And I wouldn't really know what to say.
I thought maybe I could write a book
about somebody whose body is a little bit different,
but they're proud of their body
because there's nothing wrong with it.
So, the story is about
just because you might look different
or have a different body,
you shouldn't be treated differently.
That's exactly right.
I don't think Lucy is too long.
I think she's just right.
All bodies are awesome.
You basically made Lucy very famous.
Yeah, I guess I did.
I'm not even sure that my dog knows that she's a famous dog,
but she is in a book.
- Isn't that funny? - Mm-hmm.
Did you like silly stories when you were little?
I loved silly stories when I was little,
and I love silly stories now,
and I really like making people laugh.
- Do you guys like making people laugh? - Yeah.
I think it's one of the most fun things in the world.
If you can make somebody laugh,
you can share something, right?
So, I would encourage you, if you have any stories in your head,
you should write them and you should share them with people.
You can do anything that you put your mind to,
even if you're different like me.
I love that Lucy is unstoppable. I'm unstoppable, too.
What do you guys think your favorite animal would say if they could talk?
Would they say to love yourself no matter what shape you are?
Can you tell a silly story about your favorite animal?
- All: Yeah! - Yay!
( overlapping chatter )
- Okay. - Can you pass me the pink?
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
I thought you said it was gonna be blue.
- My dream pet. - What's your dream pet?
- My dream pet is a dog. - What's your reindeer's favorite food?
- Cookies! And ramen. - Cookies.
My silly animal story is about...
A unicorn that can do very good things.
An elephant who has a really long trunk
and can pick the ripest apples.
My animal is a moose/mouse/tiger/snail.
A dragon mixed in with a koala and a cat.
My silly animal's name is Felicia.
Lou just likes to travel. She's very creative.
That's why she has a lot of colors on her.
He's rainbow, and he feels way different
'cause everyone else is pink and yellow and green,
but he's just way different than everyone.
He's very dangerous. You do not wanna mess with him.
And he's very, very long.
I made her have wings
'cause I thought she could be part fairy.
I'm making a snake with two sisters.
The two heads he has, he grew those his own.
She can do really cool things like do a back flip
with landing really good.
- Bam! - I think my silly animal is perfect.
( overlapping chatter )
That was so fun.
I loved telling you about my dog Lucy.
I hope this book inspires you to create your own stories
about all the marvelous things that bodies can do.
What would your story be?
Here she is, the longest dog, Lucy!
I'm very sorry, she's just got a little bit of stage fright, guys.
Um, just a second. Here we go!
This is a very long dog.
I guess we're gonna have to do something else.
- I can't find her. - Lucy!
- Aah! - Hey, guys.