Who Wants a Dog?

By Naperville Magazine
June 2026 View more Books

By Jeff Banowetz

Kids begging their parents for a dog is an age-old scenario. But when Jan Ackmann was raising her three kids, she ran into a somewhat unusual roadblock: Two of her kids pleaded for a dog, but her eldest was dead set against it. “It was so funny because our oldest son, Tom, who was about 10 at the time, was very defiant. He would come up with all of these reasons why it was a bad idea.”

Ackmann, a longtime teacher, recalled the family history when she took a creative writing class, and she turned it into a short children’s story. Her initial instinct was to create a book just for her kids, but when she found her friend Florine Porter was willing to illustrate it, she began to consider publishing it.

“We collaborated on the book, and [Porter] did a great job, and we felt really good about it, so I thought: Let’s get this published,” Ackmann says.

She released the book, Who Wants A Dog?, late last year, and it’s now available at Amazon and other online retailers, as well as at Anderson’s Bookshops, where it comes with a small plush dog to take home with the book.

Spoiler alert: Tom changes his mind.

“He eventually comes around, which makes for a very nice ending to the story.”

Photos: Jan Ackmann