Life is not easy for twelve-year-old Diego Escobár. It was wonderful raising Aloha from puppyhood to eighteen months, but now he must return her to the guide dog school for her formal training. Diego always knew that Aloha was on loan to him, but letting her go is proving to be the hardest challenge of his young life.
In this tender, inspirational tale, based on the true-life story of Aloha, Diego discovers that the sweet and sad in life are often interwoven. The unconditional love and trust between Aloha and Diego will enable her to become the dog she was bred to be. In giving her up, Diego gains unexpected rewards.
"Wherever you go, you will walk with a piece of my heart beside you."
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Grade 3-7-This is the story of seventh-grader Diego, who raises a puppy to become a guide dog for the blind, and of Miss Kimberly Louise, a woman who loses her sight as the result of an automobile accident. Their paths meet when Diego presents Aloha to her after the animal's graduation from Guide Dogs for the Blind. This book does an excellent job of explaining the process of training guide-dog puppies, a topic that will fascinate many children. Unfortunately, the dialogue is often unnatural ("I think it's liberating not seeing an unkempt beard or a blemished face"), or just plain treacly ("My world is still filled with the same marvelous colors as before, but now I'm viewing them from a different perspective"). Character development is told instead of shown, particularly Diego's growing confidence through raising Aloha, and the story begins slowly due to long-winded descriptions. Despite these problems, the moving scenario will have readers sniffling as Diego passes Aloha's leash to Miss Kimberly Louise, and may even lead them to consult the appended list of resources to find out about raising their own guide-dog puppies. Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbia Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Hello, Goodbye, I Love You is touching and inspiring. The reader will not only come away with a keen understanding of guide dogs and what it takes to raise them, but will also appreciate this heartwarming, sweet story. Kimberly Louise inspires readers with her courage. --Writers Digest 2006
Finely-crafted and compelling, this novel consists of alternating chapters focused on a preteen puppyraiser and his dog Aloha and the middle-aged newly blind woman who would eventually become Aloha's partner. Besides the fact that this book is such a good "read", this novel is a really accurate look at the fun, discipline, and emotional impact of puppy raising. --Sally Rosenthal, Bay Region Barker, July 2004 Vol. 6, Issue 7
I was raised in North Bend, Oregon, a peaceful town close to the sea. As the oldest of five children, I often entertained my siblings with fabricated stories about witches and magical creatures. My parents passed on to us their love of the written word and we became avid readers. Dad, a radiologist who had several medical books and a few short stories published, told us we could do anything if we really believed in ourselves.
In the middle of my high school freshman year our family moved to Klamath Falls in southern Oregon, with a lake for water-skiing and exciting new educational and social challenges. Reading and writing were my favorite school subjects. Through them I began a life-long quest for travel and new adventures.
During my second year at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, I traveled to Mexico with twenty-two students and two professors to study for six months with the Experiment in International Living. For two months we lived with families in Merida, Yucatan, before moving to Mexico City to study with local University professors. While living in a pension in Mexico City, I met a young architect who would eventually become my husband. But first I had to convince my parents to let me return to Mexico to study for a year at the University of the Americas. I finished my final year at Lewis and Clark College with a B.A. in Spanish.
Now I could follow my travel dreams! For two years I flew as a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines, flying to every continent except Africa. In those days we had 3-4 day layovers in amazing places like Argentina, Aruba, Tahiti, and Thailand; my hungry mind was already storing information for book material.
I married Eduardo Gual in 1969 and lived happily in Mexico City for eighteen years. We raised our two daughters to be bi-lingual and bi-cultural. In my free time, I entertained myself by working as an actress in Mexican television programs, American movies filmed in Mexico (Caveman, Under Fire, Volunteers, etc.) modeling, and filming commercials. I also taught Spanish to American executives and English to Mexican businessmen and children.
In 1986, after my divorce, I brought my daughters to San Diego to start over. I became a U.S. Customs Inspector and was sent to Brunswick, GA to the Federal Law Enforcement Academy for training. As fate would have it, I met my future husband Michael in my basic training class! After a seven-year relationship, (three of them long distance), we married and have just celebrated our thirteenth anniversary!
While working as a Customs Inspector, I wrote my first book "The Bumpedy Road" as a tribute to my daughters to thank them for their courage in following and supporting me and the life changes my divorce had inflicted on them. I decided to write it with our Mexican cat Kiska as narrator. We thought it would be a "stand-alone" book, but school children wrote to me, again and again, asking for a sequel. "Rain City Cats" was written next, also during my six-year tour of duty in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, and "Eight Paws to Georgia" was completed after our move to St. Simons Island, GA. Now we had a "Kiska Trilogy" -- I was really an author! I had worked for twelve years as a Customs Inspector and now my husband encouraged me leave the government and work full-time as an author.
About this time, my younger daughter was raising a guide puppy for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Soon we met Aloha and learned all about the "Puppy-Raising Program." When the time came for her to return Aloha to the school for formal training, she phoned us in tears. I asked her what I could do to make it easier and she answered: "Write a book about Aloha's story." "Hello, Goodbye, I Love You is that story."
Since moving to coastal Georgia, I've been intrigued with local history. Neptune Small lived as a slave on one of the fourteen island plantations during the antebellum period, and he performed an incredibly loving and heroic deed for his master's son. This local legend had never been written in book form, so I sought out Neptune's descendants and asked their permission to write it. "Neptune's Honor" has been well received and has given them their great-grandfather's legacy in written form.
My second historical fiction was released in early 2007. Entitled "An Angry Drum Echoed: Mary Musgrove, Queen of the Creeks," it tells the story of a Creek woman who met General Oglethorpe's ship when he landed to colonize Georgia. She became his interpreter and emissary and smoothed the path to cooperation between the Creeks and the colonists.
This keen interest in southern historical characters takes me back to my youth, when reading biographies and historical fiction captured my imagination and took me to other places. My books are written for children and young adults, to educate yet entertain. Michael and I enjoy traveling and sharing our favorite books. Sometimes we'll even read them to Jasper and Sukey Spice, our cats! We are members of Lions Club International, and I was the local chapter's president in 2006-2007. Our grandbabies bring us great joy and we visit them in Australia and San Diego whenever we can.
5.0 out of 5 starsHello, Good-bye, I Love You, May 31, 2003
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Hello, Goodbye, I Love You (Paperback)
HELLO, GOOD-BYE, I LOVE YOU is an inspirational tail that will have you "sitting up and begging for more."
Diego, the Mexican boy, is thrilled to find his school is running a new program in which you adopt a dog for a temporary amount of time and train it for Guide Dogs for the Blind. He and his friend Jeremy join enthustiastically and embark on a joyous adventure training their dogs.
Then the day comes Diego has been dreading - the day he must give up his precious Aloha, the dog he's learned to love and care for. He's not sure how he's going to handle this, until he realizes someone else needs Aloha much more then he.
HELLO, GOOD-BYE, I LOVE YOU is a book that cannot be put down or forgotten. It tugs at your heart and will have you laughing and crying at the same time.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Hello, Goodbye, I Love You (Paperback)
Hello Goodbye I love You, is a great book that interweaves the life of Diego Escobar and his family as they raise Aloha the guide puppy and the life of Kimberly Louise as she goes through some tragic events. It teaches that there are many challenges in life, but we can try hard and find ways to overcome them. I loved how the two stories were interchanged chapter by chapter, and Pam used great imagery! It felt like I was in the book, part of the story and knew Diego and his family!I could picture all the scenes because of the wonderful word choice she used and the story is so realistic to how life would be with a guide dog.The way that Pam pieced together the story couldnt have been better. She did an overall magnificent job with the book. -Clara Baker
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This review is from: Hello, Goodbye, I Love You (Paperback)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not only is it interesting to read, but is full of facts as well. We share the characters emotions, yet at the same time, learn the realities of raising a guide dog puppy. This book will interest both children and adults but is also a wonderful way to become informed about guide dogs, their trainers and recipients. I know this book will do more than just entertain, it will challenge and encourage people to act and get involved in such a wonderful project.
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