New Richland book reading

About 35 children attended a special reading at the New Richland library the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 11 to hear Trebie Gets a Passport, a children’s book written by Debra Shurson Repya, a New Richland native and a 1969 graduate of the New Richland-Hartland school district.

 

Deb and her husband Joe have resided in Florida for some time, but were in the area visiting family. Deb’s sister, New Richland resident Georgia Dinneen, had helped schedule the reading.

 

According to Deb, the recently completed book was written after nearly a decade of people encouraging her to write down the story of how she and Joe came to own their sweet-tempered, lap-sized dog, Trebie.

 

The two were visiting members of Joe’s extended family in September of 2016 in the river town of Trebinje, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, when the puppy, then about two months old, jumped into Deb’s lap and licked her face. When they asked a staff member at the cafe where they were having coffee whether he recognized the puppy, they were told it was a stray. It was suggested they could take the pup to the city park, where it would have the company and perhaps protection of other strays.

 

The book, written from Trebie’s perspective, shares how the couple eventually took her to the park, but could not find it in their hearts to leave her there.

 

Instead, the pup was taken to a veterinarian for a health check, housed with family members for two months while she received a series of inoculations required for international travel, and delivered to the U.S. by a family member. The process did genuinely involve a pet passport, which has been kept all this time, even though Trebie has not experienced any international travel since changing homelands.

 

In putting the book together, Deb tells that she worked with Florida illustrator Donna Stackhouse whose lively, revealing artwork fills each page from margin to margin, leaving lighter-colored spaces open for the text. The intended reading level of the book is ages 3 to 8.

 

The book is available on Amazon for around $12.

 

“I’m not in this to make money,” says Deb with a smile. “It’s only that it’s a very sweet story that tells how, at least sometimes, bad situations can turn out well.

 

“We’ve had 10 years so far with this wonderful little dog, and we’re glad all the time that we found her and brought her home.”