Elmhurst author Caryn Rivadeneira is sharing her love for dogs through her two new children’s books. “Noodle Helps Gabriel Say Goodbye” and “Robot Helps Max and Lily Deal with Bullies” are part of the Helper Hounds series, which are all about loving rescue dogs.
By Julia Locanto
For The Elmhurst Independent
From children’s books to self-help books to magazine articles, Caryn Rivadeneira truly writes it all. The Elmhurst author has two books out as a part of her Helper Hounds children’s series.
The new books, “Noodle Helps Gabriel Say Goodbye” and “Robot Helps Max and Lily Deal with Bullies”, are numbers three and four in the series. They focus on rescue dogs and how they teach children important lessons.
This may sound like a pretty specific niche, but it’s not necessarily what Rivadeneira thought she would do. Born and raised in Elmhurst, Rivadeneira said she knew she was a writer from a young age.
“As a kid, you sort of have the idea that writers are authors,” she said.
Her other passion was always her love for dogs. Rivadeneira is a self-proclaimed pit bull fanatic, with one rescue of her own.
“I’ve wanted to write about dogs since the age of 7,” Rivadeneira said.
Friend and colleague Jennifer Grant said Rivadeneira’s love for canines has always been evident.
“There’s nobody I know that loves dogs more than she does,” Grant said.
She is also dedicated to her faith and is a church staffer, making religion an important part of her life. Rivadeneira incorporates both of these passions into her books.
Writing for magazines leads to children’s books
Rivadeneira’s early start was in magazines. With a bachelor’s degree in English, she dived right into magazine writing. Rivadeneira said she loved the essay format of magazine articles and went on to become an editor, even dabbling in blog editing.
It wasn’t until her mid-30s that Rivadeneira began considering books. The mother of three had written an article detailing the struggles of motherhood. Her editor was impressed and told her to explore the topic more thoroughly—maybe even write a book about it.
And that’s exactly what she did.
Rivadeneira landed a spot at Random House publishing. Her first book was “Mama’s Got a Fake I.D.,” which chronicles the struggles of losing yourself in the role of a mother.
From there, her journey to authorship took off. But the real twist in her career happened by chance.
“Writing children’s books hadn’t been on my horizon,” Rivadeneira said. “The switch happened accidentally.”
A colleague asked her to write a children’s book about Noah’s Ark. This led her to write her first original children’s book, “Grit and Grace.” Rivadeneira said she wanted to share stories with young girls of strong, empowered women from the Bible.
“It was important to me that I didn’t over soften it,” she said. “I wanted it to be very feminist.”
The ‘Helper Hounds’ series
Her current project is an eight-book series called Helper Hounds, which was inspired by an introduction to a comfort dog organization. The first story, “Penny Helps Portia Face Her Fears,” was based on her own dynamic dog of 10 years ago.
But the ideas don’t always come so easily.
“I know what the premise is, but generally when I sit down to write, I don’t have things scripted out,” she said. “There are elements I discover as I’m writing.”
Grant said Rivadeneira’s creative writing abilities are remarkable.
“She has a very quick mind,” Grant said. “She just has a laser focus when she’s writing.”
Grant herself writes books for children and adults. She said this similarity to Rivadeneira has drawn them close as colleagues, and they often inspire each other.
“Our careers have been similar in some ways,” Grant said. “We’ve developed some ideas in tandem and encourage each other.”
This comes in handy when curating ideas, as shifting between children’s and adult books can be challenging.
Shifting to writing for adults
Rivadeneira said the process for writing adult books is quite different, especially since many of hers are non-fiction. In some ways, Rivadeneira said she feels it can be similar to magazine writing.
The one element that all of Rivadeneira’s books have in common are her personal passions. Although not all of her books have religious ties, they all have themes of goodness. The Helper Hound series, for example, teaches strong moral values, which is important to her writing, Rivadeneira said.
“I want people to think deeply about the world around them,” she said. “I see these things as a part of who I am, so it comes out in my writing.”
Although Covid-19 has put a halt to promotional events, Rivadeneira has no plans to stop writing any time soon.
“I feel like if I had the opportunity, I could seriously write forever,” she said.
The next two books in the Helper Hounds series are set to come out in January 2021.
