NORWAY — A Winthrop children’s author read excerpts from her new book geared toward middle school students Wednesday afternoon at Books N Things.

Lynn Plourde, a Skowhegan native who has written children’s books for nearly 20 years, read excerpts from “Maxi’s Secrets,” which follows the travails of a deaf Great Pyrenees dog.

Plourde said the idea for “Maxi’s Secrets” was born out of details of her own life, though she made some minor adjustments in writing it.

She held up a photograph of a Great Pyrenees with white fur standing on its hind legs, wrapping its paws around a woman.

“They look small when they’re young, but they’re huge when they’re older,” Plourde told the audience. “They’re known as gentle giants, so even though they’re such big dogs, they’re very gentle with kids.

“That’s the dog I wrote about in ‘Maxi’s Secrets,’ but I didn’t have a Great Pyrenees in real life,” she said. “I had a black Irish setter mix named Maggie.”

She showed the audience several photographs of her dog, explaining that she had passed away.

“I decided that I wanted to honor my sweet, old dog by writing a book about her,” Plourde said. “I knew I wanted to make the dog in the book deaf.”

However, upon researching dogs who are born deaf, Plourde learned that many of them have white fur, because of a genetic abnormality.

“My dog, Maggie, didn’t have white fur, so that’s when I decided to change the dog to a white Great Pyrenees,” she said.

Her audience was treated to a surprise: the early release of Plourde’s new children’s book “Bella’s Fall Coat,” illustrated by Susan Gal and scheduled for wide release Sept. 6.

According to Plourde’s website, the book is about a young girl named Bella who wishes autumn would last forever.

After Plourde finished reading from “Maxi’s Secrets,” she sat down at a small table and invited people to sit and chat with her while she signed books.

Plourde has had 27 children’s books published, including her newest, “Only Cows Allowed,” “Dino Pets Go to School” and “Lost Trail,” a graphic novel co-authored with Donn Fendler. Her other books include “Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud,” “Moose, of Course!” and “Wild Child.”

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net