Mousefest was a busy four days.. So much so that on several occasions I had to break from organized events because there were other happenings pulling me away. One of those events was a book signing with Dave Barry. And of course I was gonna be over 2 hours late for a 2 hour signing.

Following a great lunch at Le Cellier with some great folk (see earlier review), I ran. I did one of those runs that looks stupid… feels clumsy… and gets you there a minute and a half after the time you would have arrived if you just walked. I lumbered onto the monorail… and took a second one around the Magic Kingdom loop to the Contemporary. There, I was able to meet one of my heroes… No line.. Just me for a good 15 minutes…

If you don’t know Dave Barry, he was a humorist for the Miami Herald for years and has a bucketful full of books compiled of his hilarious writings. His work has inspired a comic strip (Dave’s World)… a television series (also called Dave’s World), and even a movie, BIG TROUBLE starring Tim Allen. Lately he has worked with Ridley Pearson in creating a trilogy of Peter Pan stories: PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, PETER AND THE SHADOW THIEVES, and PETER AND THE SECRET OF RUNDOON. (Starcatchers is slated to be a 2009 animated Disney film). Even though he was signing the third in the PETER series, I haven’t read my copy. Besides, I wanna talk about another book he has written… None of that sighing! Just read on.

The Shepherd, The Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle dog is… a very long title. So for the sake of brevity, I’ll refer to it as WALTER from now on. (Calling it “Walter” makes me feel all giddy because that is what Dave and I called it when we discussed the book at the signing…) (Calling him “Dave” makes me feel all giddy too cause when I met him I kept calling him “Mister Barry”.)

Anyway, Walter is a Christmas story, just over 120 pages and an easy, engrossing read. It’s the story of Doug Barnes, a pre-teen relating a memorable Christmastime in the sixties. Although I am definitely the wrong age, I was able to relate with the story as if it were my own childhood which would occur decades later… (okay… decade).

Through the course of the story, Barnes recalls a previous Christmas Eve church pageant, and the following year’s pageant disaster. All brought to life with a pain in the neck brother, an early love interest, an overzealous stage director with hair the color of orange in the candy corn and two dogs, one not long for this world and Walter, the Christmas miracle… To be fair, there is also a bit involving a large collection of hardened bat poop… but I’d rather not talk about that.

Barry has crafted a story that I have now read 4 times, I found it so endearing. He deftly captures the Jean Shepherd effect from the newer holiday classic A CHRISTMAS STORY.

So, here I am a week after Christmas reviewing a Christmas story. Maybe I’m already missing it.. and I look forward to reading it again…

Check out Dave Barry’s website here…

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