Bernadette Peters: How Broadway Barks Became a Book for Kids

About the author:
In addition to her unparalleled career as a Broadway leading lady, two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters has made a name for herself as the ultimate friend of homeless animals. Ten years ago, she and Mary Tyler Moore founded Broadway Barks, an adoption event held between shows in Shubert Alley on a summer Saturday. An immediate success, the adopt-a-thon has grown to include potential pets from more than 25 animal shelters and adoption agencies. Peters' latest professional accomplishment is the publication of a best-selling children's book, Broadway Barks, featuring beautiful mixed-media collage illustrations by Liz Murphy. It's the story of an adorable dog named Kramer based on Peters' own pet who longs for a home and finds one at the Broadway Barks event. In addition to a touching story, Peters has written a lovely lullaby, "Kramer's Song," which is packaged with the book on a CD in which the actress sings her composition and reads the text in her inimitable voice. In a market saturated with celebrity authors, Broadway Barks, dedicated to Peters' late husband, Michael Wittenberg, stands apart both for its message and the quality of the book and lullaby, which begins, "Good night my pal, good night my friend, tomorrow I'll see you again." The newly minted author shared her thoughts about this new career path with Broadway.com.

I had never thought about writing a book for children until I was approached by the publisher of Blue Apple Books, who knew about my work saving shelter animals. Would I be interested in writing a story for a picture book, with royalties to be donated to my animal adoption charity, Broadway Barks? I was intrigued!

My first thought was to write about adopting my dog Kramer from the pound, but my editor felt the book should be about the Broadway Barks event, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary on July 12. From there, the story just took off. The idea of going to Shubert Alley with Kramer came to me so clearly: He gets up on stage and starts to "sing," but people laugh because all they hear is barking. Then he starts to "dance," and they laugh even harder because all they see is jumping. In real life, Kramer and my pit bull, Stella, are always trying to tell me something. The funny thing is, I'm starting to understand them!

I was paired with illustrator Liz Murphy, who had the challenge of getting Kramer, my "Heinz 57 varieties" mutt, right. He looks like Tramp in Lady and the Tramp, a movie I loved, and Liz kept drawing and drawing until she captured him. She has a wonderful decoupage style of illustration, and she drew characters in the book based on me, my Broadway Barks co-founder Mary Tyler Moore, and one of my seven godchildren, Isabel, as the little girl who adopts Kramer.

Toward the end of the writing process, my editor said, "We really should have a song to go with this book." I thought, "Who's going to write it!?" I've never written a song in my life; I have too much respect for composers. I started thinking about lullabies I like, such as the Beatles' "Now it's time to say good night." I wanted a classic song that I would enjoy singing.

"Kramer's Song" came to me on a plane flight—music and lyrics at the same time. When we landed, I sang it into a tape recorder, wondering, "Is this good enough?" The next day, I sang it for my musical director, Marvin Laird, and he did an arrangement with piano, violin, cello and celeste. We recorded it for the CD that accompanies the book, and I started performing it in my concerts. I call it my little miracle—I joke that I need to go back up in a plane and see what other songs come out.

Now that the book has been published, I'm having a great time taking Kramer to events and readings. He's a star now, and he's loving it. The first event was a cocktail party at Le Cirque. When people applauded, he wouldn't stop barking so we had to take him out. When we went to do The View, the audience wasn't so close, so he barked a little bit when they applauded and then stopped. Then we did the Today show, and he got excited when he heard the applause and barked, then laid down. He is such a ham.

I'm already thinking about my next book. It will be about my pit bull, Stella, with a story about not judging people at face value. That's what tends to happen with pit bulls, but they are the best dogs. Stella is my baby doll. I never pictured myself writing for children or doing readings in bookstores, but I am really enjoying it. And it's lovely to hear from parents that they read the book with their little ones at the end of the day and then listen to the lullaby on the CD.

I'll be signing copies of Broadway Barks at the Broadhurst Theatre on July 12, just before our 10th annual Broadway Barks adopt-a-thon. The event has grown so much. At first, people came just to see the celebrities, but now they understand that the event is about finding homes for pets. Last year, we had 130 animals, and 100 of them were adopted. The city shelter had to go back for more dogs, which thrilled me.

I love writing about the joys of adopting a pet. As we've learned over the past 10 years with Broadway Barks, shelters are filled with all kinds of wonderful animals, many of them purebreds. They are so grateful to be rescued and give their owners so much love. Having a pet lowers your blood pressure and helps children develop compassion and communication skills. I want people to understand how healing an animal companion can be.