I Am a Good Dog: Kidnote with Katherine Applegate & Gennifer Choldenko
Sat, Oct 03
|Decatur Square Stage
Join us for a beloved DBF tradition, the "Kidnote," with acclaimed authors Katherine Applegate & Gennifer Choldenko!
Time & Location
Oct 03, 2026, 10:00 AM – 10:45 AM
Decatur Square Stage, 509 N McDonough St, Decatur, GA 30030
About
Join us for the Kidnote! Bestselling and beloved authors Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko return to the Dogtown series with I Am a Good Dog. Metal Head, a robot dog in the Dogtown shelter, longs to find a forever home in the New York Times–bestselling series that has already found a home in readers' hearts.
Signing information:
Signing time: 11:00 AM
Signing location: Core Dance Studios, 133 Sycamore St.
About the Authors
Katherine Applegate is the # 1 New York Times–bestselling author of beloved and award-winning books for young readers, including Pocket Bear, Odder, Home of the Brave, Crenshaw, Wishtree, Willodeen, and The One and Only Ivan, for which she won the Newbery Medal. She is also the author of the Animorphs series; a beginning reader series, Doggo and Pupper, illustrated by Charlie Alder; and the picture book Odder: An Otter's Story, illustrated by Charles Santoso. Her middle-grade books, Dogtown and Mouse and His Dog, coauthored with Gennifer Choldenko, were also instant New York Times bestsellers. She joins us with the latest in the Dogtown series, I Am a Good Dog. Katherine Applegate lives in Nevada with her family.
Gennifer Choldenko’s best-known Tales from Alcatraz series has been called “a cornerstone series in contemporary children’s literature.” Al Capone Does My Shirts—the first book in the series—was a Newbery Honor Book and the recipient of twenty other awards. All four books in the series were Junior Library Guild selections and garnered many starred reviews. Her middle-grade books, Dogtown and Mouse and His Dog, coauthored with Katherine Applegate, were instant New York Times bestsellers. She joins us with the latest in the Dogtown series, I Am a Good Dog. Gennifer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her loyal husband and naughty dog.
About the Book
Dogtown is a shelter for all dogs—real and robot. Metal Head, a robot dog who is a longtime resident of Dogtown, yearns for a forever home. When a girl named Esme begins visiting Dogtown, Metal Head goes on a mission to get her to adopt him.
But Esme doesn’t like robot dogs. She has her heart set on taking home a gangly wolfhound mix named Ghost with one blue eye and one yellow eye. Sadly, Ghost’s former owner mistreated him, so he’s terrified of everyone. Can Esme, Metal Head, Mouse, and Molly, a dog who fosters stray kittens, figure it out?
And what about Metal Head? When will he get his forever home?
The characters in the New York Times–bestselling Dogtown books have already found homes in readers’ hearts. Award-winning authors Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko bring humor and empathy to the story of this special shelter; with charming illustrations by Wallace West, the Dogtown books are perfect for readers at all levels.