The Story Behind This Children's Book
On the morning of September 11, 2001, John Rowan (Johnny to his friends) was a Detective working for the New York City Police Department. He happened to live one block from where the WorldTradeCenter stood. After the tragedy began to unfold, Johnny ran over to the SouthTower to help those that were injured and assist in the evacuation. As hundreds of other rescuers arrived, he turned to return home to check on his pet Dachshund, Jake. After traveling a short distance from the SouthTower, the building collapsed. John returned home to find his apartment destroyed and found Jake frightened, but unharmed. Johnny and Jake were given temporary housing in another part of the city, but there was one small problem. The relocated apartment building didn’t allow pets. Jake was very special to Johnny. Faced with the option of being separated from his beloved pet, he decided to create a cover story. Johnny informed the Superintendent of the new building that Jake wasn’t a pet, but a Police Dog. This pacified the Superintendent for a short period of time. A few days later Johnny was approached again and the Superintendent inquired “What kind of Police Dog is this small dachshund”, Johnny quickly replied, “Jake is a Bomb Dog”. Once again this only pacified their curiosity for a few days. The next question was then why don’t you take him to work with you. At this point, even John’s daughter, Ashleen got in on the cover story and replied, “That he is a bombed-out Bomb Dog”. The questions continued for the next several weeks and the cover story that resulted is “Jake, the Bombed-Out Bomb Dog.” John wrote “Jake, the Bombed-Out Bomb Dog” with his daughter, Ashleen who was then 10. In fact, Ashleen came up with most of the big words.
John wrote this book with his daughter in part to explain what happened and to help her have a positive outlet in this tragic event. John’s hope with the moral of this book is to give children the understanding that just because you have one limitation doesn’t mean you don’t have other gifts to offer.