Staff Writer — Paige Corkill 

About four and a half hours south of Sioux Center, in the small town of Washington, Kansas, a little corgi gets ready to save the day – for the third time. On this occasion, Izzy the Corgi is on a mission to save some local cows from their alien kidnappers. Previously, Izzy has helped her sheriff owner save their small western town from pesky varmints and assisted her superhero owner in taking down the bad guys threatening her city. With this resume, there is no doubt that Izzy can’t handle some cow-nabbing aliens.  

While these stories may not be quite true to life, Izzy is a very real corgi who does go on many adventures. When she’s not saving the day, Izzy spends all her free time with her owner and best friend, Kady Toole. 

Kady is a freshman at Dordt University majoring in Fine Arts and Graphic Design. As a college freshman, Kady is already a published author and illustrator, with three children’s books up for sale, all inspired by her corgi, Izzy.  

During her sophomore year of high school, Kady’s school decided to implement a project-based learning class. All the students at Washington County High had to choose some sort of project that would last an entire semester. There were several competencies to be achieved through the project, so some students started their own small business, did research projects, or learned to play an instrument. Kady had a different idea.  

“For my project I decided to write and illustrate my own children’s book,” Kady said.  

The idea for “Izzy the Cowgirl Corgi” was born. She spent the whole semester working on it, using class time and free time to get it done. Her creative process is simple. 

“As long as I have a general idea and basic plot I can start,” Kady said. “From there I did the illustrations and broke it up into pages so I knew what to draw.”  

After getting positive feedback , she decided to try and publish her product. Self-publishing was a difficult process for Kady as it involved finding a company to work with, sending everything to the company, designing the book spread, re-sending, fixing, and of course paying for her book to get published and get made into copies.  

“This was a process and there was a lot of learning from all that,” Kady said, “But in the end, it’s worth it.” 

After her book was published, Kady did a lot of promotion. This included starting a Facebook page and website for Izzy, going to libraries and schools to present the book and doing a read aloud – even bringing Izzy along to some of these events in her matching book costume.  

After self-publishing, it was important to try to make some money back from all the costs incurred, and maybe even earn some extra to pay for college. 

 “I found the best way to make money is to buy my books and then sell them myself,” Kady said.  

It was never her initial goal to make money but any extra money the books made she intended for college.  

“As long as we broke even it was fine,” Kady said. 

After having some success with her first book, Kady wrote a second one during her Junior year, and a third her Senior year. The three books, “Izzy the Cowgirl Corgi”, “Izzy the Super Corgi”, and “Izzy the Corgi Meets the Aliens” each follow a theme.  

“The first one is western, second one is superhero, and third one small town dairy farm,” Kady said.  

Each book puts Izzy in a new situation that follows the theme.  

Writing these stories has had a big impact on Kady’s life. She says that through all of this she has become a better public speaker, and now more easily converses with adults and other people she might not usually talk with.  

“I have also gotten a lot of new opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I’ve gotten to go to a lot of places in the Kansas area,” Kady said.  

Apart from reading at different libraries and schools, Kady attended a book festival where she was able to be on a panel for young authors. 

“I love that I am getting to meet so many people and have all these experiences,” Kady said.  

Throughout each book process, Kady’s parents have been supportive. 

 “They very much helped with the initial, ‘this is something you could do’, idea” Kady said.  

With their work experience as an art teacher and accountant, her parents acted as her managers along the way.  

Overall, Kady said that the best part is, “the experience itself.” 

She is encouraged by how supporting her community is. In her hometown, she and Izzy can’t go anywhere without getting stopped to ask what she’s been up to and when the next book is coming out.  

This summer, Kady hopes to complete a fourth book.