Alexandra Garyn and Bryan Reisberg with Maxine.Photo:courtesy of Bryan Reisberg
courtesy of Bryan Reisberg
Maxine the Fluffy Corgi has hung out with celebrities likeEd SheeranandJared Letoand amassed over 6 million social media followers. So what’s next for the internet-famous pooch?
Maxine Gets a Jobfollows the famous canine’s quest to try out her friends’ various jobs until she finds her true talent.
Susan Batori
Garyn tells PEOPLE that the couple, who got Maxine as a wedding gift to each other in 2015, had always wanted to write a children’s book.
“We’ve always been pretty enamored with the art form,” she says. “Really big collectors of children’s books, love reading them, appreciate the impact they have on families and kids, and have always wanted to do that ourselves.”
Reisberg tells PEOPLE he and Garyn wanted to put everything they love about their “funny little goofball” into a kids' book.
“We want to show people, not only teach them, that dogs are such a unique gift to the world and to people and how they help people,” he says.
Reisberg compares Maxine — who has more than 4 million followers onTikTokand 1 million onInstagram— to a “living teddy bear.”
Maxine the Fluffy Corgi/Instagram
“She’s so lovable and sweet and squeezable, and she’s just a really adorable little dog,” he says. “I think it’s in the eyes. She’s got incredible facial expressions. She’s very expressive. She’s got a very bold personality. I think that her face just lets people in. I think also the reason she’s become our muse is because she’s so expressive, and she’s got these character traits that you can play with. She’s so funny.”
It was essential to the couple for the book’s illustrations to do justice to Maxine. Once they saw illustrator Susan Batori’s first rendering of the canine, Reisberg says they “almost started crying.”
“It was like, ‘That’s Maxine in cartoon form.’ She really found where to exaggerate some of those mannerisms and the characteristics.”
“Every spread in this book is just fun, colorful,” adds Garyn, who notes they’ve been working on the book for three years. “There’s so many layers. It’s like, even us having flipped through it so many times, every time I’m on certain pages, I’m noticing new little things that Susan included here or there.”
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People send the couple videos of their kids reacting to Maxine’s social media content, so they’re excited for children to experience Maxine in book form. They also look forward to seeing the book alongside their childhood favorites.
“You’re going to go into your favorite bookstore, and you’re going to see Maxine next to Oliver Jeffers and Dr. Seuss and all these books that we grew up on, and she’s going to be a part of that,” Reisberg says. “I said to Alex the other day, it’s like, ‘Can you imagine that there’s going to be at least one kid out there who’s going to want their parents to read this book every night’ That’s really special.”
source: people.com
