Our Books
The New Cadets
The New Cadets is the first novel in a multi-volume series titled The Dream Rangers. It follows a group of dogs training to help children troubled by nightmares. This warm-hearted story, written for dog lovers of all ages, tells of nine dogs during their first days of training. It describes how they are discovered as toy dogs by agents from the Bureau of Dreams and are brought to a hidden world called Crossover where they are transformed into real dogs and begin their formal training. As the nine new cadets learn to use their bodies and grow into their roles, they discover the true meaning of friendship, loyalty, service, dedication, and courage.
Crossover
In Book Two, Crossover, the dogs learn how Crossover itself was discovered and how a toy dog named Rove deceived his family by exploring the fog-enshrouded Lower Valley. It was there that Rove gained the skill of entering dreams, a skill now being passed on to other dogs. A trip to the farm triggers a terrifying nightmare for one of the new cadets, a dream that warns of dangers coming their way. When another one of their group falls into deep despair, his classmates work together, taking risks and disregarding rules in hopes of saving him.
“Thoroughly delightful story brimming with cozy friendships and otherworldly thrills—seen through the eyes of acharming pack of stouthearted dogs.”
“Marjorie Burns’s wry, witty, heart-tugging transformation of stuffed dogs into real dogs recruited to defend children’s dreams is both wildly imaginative and down-to-earth funny.”
“Thoroughly delightful story brimming with cozy friendships and otherworldly thrills—seen through the eyes of acharming pack of stouthearted dogs.”
“A magical tale in which stuffed animals become real and work to protect vulnerable children from nightmares. Burns’ The New Cadets is a tender and warm-hearted story that should engage both youngsters and those who read to/with them. . . . . Moreover, The New Cadets features charming black and white illustrations by Carolyn Wilhelm.”
“This imaginative book written by Marjorie Burns is geared to children, but it will delight dog lovers of all ages. . . . The interactions between [the dogs] are sometimes funny, sometimes embarrassing, but always endearing. The illustrations by Carolyn Wilhelm are wonderful.”
About the Author
Marjorie Burns
Marjorie Burns was born and raised in Portland, Oregon the youngest of three—or four if you count the family dog. She taught high school for two years before returning to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, earning her Ph.D. with a dissertation on fantasy and children’s literature in nineteenth-century England. She is now retired from university teaching and lives at the base of a Cascade mountain, where woods and waterways and half-deserted roads are waiting to be explored. Her dogs are always along.
About the Artist
Carolyn Wilhelm
Carolyn Wilhelm, MFA, M Div, has painted, drawn, and sketched since she was little. She has shown her work on both Coasts, and is now settled in the Pacific Northwest. Teaching classes in figure painting and portraiture, she finds that t4h gestures ad facial expressions in humans translate easily and joyfully to the dogs in the Dream Rangers books.
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