Howard Beach’s Jack and Corinne Wlody — the fitness couple that calls itself Team Wlody — is at it again, this time teaching children the importance of healthy lifestyle choices in their first book, “The Dog Who Saved Pleasantville, a ‘Tail’ of Lifestyle Choices for Kids and Their Parents.”
For 22 years, Jack and Corinne have helped adults reach their fitness and lifestyle goals, and now they are looking to get kids in on the action through instilling better lifestyle choices, healthy eating habits, exercising, bike riding, caring for the environment and teaching moral lessons. They hope their book will create a dialogue and get children excited to be proactively involved in their own food choices and activities, all while fostering awareness about how to treat the planet.
“The Dog Who Saved Pleasantville” was a collaboration between Jack and Corinne, who together discussed plots, characters and relevant subjects. Then Corinne put everything into story form, and after edits, Corinne illustrated the 58-page book, cover to cover, in what she described as a “true labor of love.”
“We’re excited that through our entertaining, ground breaking book, we’ll teach and inspire families to make better lifestyle choices. Our motto is, if you want things to change and improve, you’ve got to be the solution,” Corinne said. “Everything we do is based on that. Half of the proceeds from each book will be donated to Bike New York, a nonprofit organization which promotes and encourages bicycling and bicycle safety through education, community outreach and events.”
The book centers around a character called Sugarman whose processed food factory comes to Pleasantville and slowly transforms the population into a zombie-like state, and starts polluting the town. A dog named Kato and his human parents set out to help restore the health of the people and return the town to its former beauty.
“As a parent I know that it’s easy to find books that will entertain your children; but it’s very rare to find one that they’ll love, which will teach them important life lessons and empower them to make good choices for the preservation of our planet and themselves,” said Ken Podziba, president and CEO of Bike New York. “’The Dog Who Saved Pleasantville’ will take your children on a special adventure with Kato and his human parents that will guide them on a path to healthier eating.”
Jack and Corinne were the recipients of the 2016 Presidential Volunteer Service Award, and received the ICA Legacy Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2015. The couple are also the 2016 New York State Champions of the National Bike Challenge, riding an astounding 23,783.1 miles in 153 straight days.
“The Dog Who Saved Pleasantville, a ‘Tail’ of Lifestyle Choices for Kids and Their Parents” is available in softcover on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and the ebook is available on iTunes. It can also be purchased from their Bookbaby.com at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/The-Dog-Who-Saved-Pleasantville.
