Jodi Dickey, a former longtime Mankato resident, is launching her fourth book, “Mutt and Jack’s Extraordinary Adventure.”
Geared for children ages 8-12, the book is a sci-fi action story that Dickey wrote while living in Colonial Street Apartments on Ramsey Street in Mankato.
“The premise of the book is that we are facing climate change, right?” Dickey said. “ I am trying to think of a way to combat climate change that hasn’t been done in any other book.”
Inspired by her parent’s dog, Mutt is a shaggy extraterrestrial dog who can speak telepathically. Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, Mutt sports one blue eye and one black eye.
Dickey said the story’s protagonist, 10-year-old Jack Herold Hanson, came to her in a dream. Jack, along with his two best friends, Heidi and Vance, live in the frigid town of Iceberg, Minnesota.
“It’s tongue and cheek; it’s funny,” Dickey said. “Most people laugh when they hear the name of the town.”
The name aligns with Minnesota’s cold winters, which Dickey said often causes outsiders from the South to believe that Minnesotans wear parkas in June. In the story, Mutt and Jack go on a sleuth-solving adventure aboard a living ship named Giggles. Along the way they encounter Planet Zealon and a colorful wizard named Mister Amazing.
Dickey, who grew up in rural Anoka, moved to Minneapolis when she was 16 years old. She credits her creative writing class instructor at Washburn High School in Minneapolis with help honing her writing skills. Dickey went on to study biology and pre-med at St. Olaf College in Northfield before earning a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. During that time, she took a year of speech classes.
“That’s where my love of writing really came to the floor,” she said. “We got to use our imagination and talk about what we liked each week.”
Having grown up on a hobby farm, Dickey said she loves all things that have to do with animals, which carries through in her book.
“I have a deep reference for all things living. I’ve had a dog my whole life and I wanted to address what is threatening our up-and-coming generation of children, being climate change.”
Her interest in climate change was sparked by the damage done to national parks. Having worked for AmeriCorps and served in the Peace Corps, Dickey spent time at Yosemite National Park in California and Glacier National Park in Montana. She saw firsthand how lack of rain affects reservoirs.
“This is our home we are talking about here. It is under attack here from pollution and car exhaust and mining runoff and fracking.”
Dickey said she hopes the book will create a following of readers who want to get involved in grassroots efforts and get their voices heard.
“I am worried about what is going to happen to the children, the upcoming generation. Are they going to have a place to call home?”