Today on the blog we welcome author J.M. Gulmire with their guest post ‘Make Your Own Dog’. Check out the post below and their new book ‘Kay-9 The Robot Dog‘ which will be released tomorrow. – This post contains affiliate links.

J.M. is a kid at heart and private educator with a house full of critters and elves. Also a screenwriter and claymation animator, Gulmire loves inspiring laughs and is the author of “A Vacuum for My Birthday.”

Make Your Own Dog

What do you do when you’re 12-years-old and you can’t have a dog? You make one, of course.

At least that’s what Ryan does in my new book, “Kay-9 The Robot Dog.” His mom is allergic to nearly every animal and he’s lonely for a four-legged friend.

Ryan’s also an only child and his dad is away. But that doesn’t stop him from setting to work.

What makes this so cool is that Ryan recycles old electronics and garbage to build Kay-9. The technological world always seems so fast-paced, so unreal. It might seem like a kid couldn’t make something so complicated, but most of the greatest inventions ever created were put together by people who just sat down and used what they had.

There is so much we can do with everyday items. And finding new ways to use old junk is something that the little elves at my house enjoy.

I wrote this story for them and for all the kids out there who love animals, robots, and making things themselves. There’s nothing like taking apart an old computer (with a parent’s permission) or exploring the possibilities by making something new.

Building things from your own imagination is super fun. Plus you never know what you can do until you try. I know I learn best through trial-and-error.

Sure mistakes happen, but you learn from them and you keep going and eventually you’ve made something no one else could. That creative spark lives in everyone. It can lead us to do great things and even help each other. It also reminds us of what’s most important.

Ryan finds out just how much his friends mean to him as he builds Kay-9, and when he’s ready to give up, his mom is there to guide him. Sure it’s good to work alone sometimes, but even then it’s the people who support us that make it all worthwhile.

When my silly elves ran up to me and asked for a robot story, I didn’t know what to write. Then they said they wanted it to be about a robot dog. It’s hard enough to clean up after a house full of mischievous elves, but they were so excited and my love of animals and building things made Ryan pop into my head like magic.

His story jumped onto the page and became alive, just like the pet he decided to make for himself. Writing is funny like that. You take a bunch of words, pile them up, and soon you’re reading a book.

I’m not some big fancy author. I mostly write while sitting in a tree waiting for the fairies to say hi, but even fairies are curious about robots sometimes.

I hope you have a chance to check out “Kay-9 The Robot Dog.” It’s my second book ever and deserves a good belly rub. At least that’s what the elves say.

No matter what you do today, I hope you make something special and share it with everyone.

Ryan is lonely. He’s an only child and his dad is away serving in the military. He can’t have pets and all he wants is a dog. So he decides to make one.

He loves computers and building things, but everyone thinks he’s just playing around, making a toy. He focuses on creating the best Kay-9 he can but can he prove that his robot dog isn’t just a toy?