Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Childs.
Hi Samantha , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have a colorful and layered relationship with writing. It’s something that has always felt like it is meant to be part of my purpose. Sometimes that has felt like a gift, sometimes it has felt like a burden and something I fail at. Writing has brought me excitement, clarity and pure moments of flow and connection. And it has also made me feel overwhelmed by my own thoughts, rabbit holes, and self-judgment.
I grew up in a family that loves books; my parents had an independent travelers bookstore in Solana Beach, with the shelves arranged by country. And as a child, the first thing I ever said I wanted to be “when I grew up” was a children’s book writer and illustrator. Later, when I went through challenging times in life, or even just during life in general, I could find belonging in books. I love memoirs – people sharing their insides make me feel that I’m not alone.
After college, where I studied Literature, I went to law school, and then felt lost and worked random jobs trying to find my path. Years later, I moved to NYC to Columbia University to get my MFA in Nonfiction Writing. I wanted to write a book like the ones that had helped me. I went through breakup and got my first ever dog – a red masked French bulldog, who I named Henri and loved with a depth more expansive than the outer borders of my heart.
After my NYC classes and teaching jobs were completed, Henri and I moved back to my hometowns of Del Mar and Solana Beach to finish my graduate thesis. It was during this time that I found a creative way to procrastinate writing my thesis- I made an Instagram account for Henri.
I called it @henrilefrenchie. (Henri Le Frenchie) It started because my friend had an account for her dog, with about 50 or so strangers following it, which I found funny and surprisingly delightful. So I made one too and spent hours on it, posting pictures and videos, creating contests, and loving sharing Henri with the world. Perhaps it was a way for me to write that didn’t feel so serious. It could just be fun.
Henri’s account took off. He grew by tens of thousands of followers – at its peak @henrilefrenchie had 76K followers. I was connecting with people all around the world, who loved my dog. I know there are less positive sides of social media, but this felt so good and joyful. I feel very lucky to have experienced it. And all of this made me think of my early childhood dream – writing a children’s book. And how Henri could be a part of it.
I thought of what story, aside from the story of Henri, that I wanted to tell. What was personal to me, that I could share, and that could be of value to others. And that’s when I thought of bullying. When I was thirteen, I started a new middle school, and was badly bullied. People called me names, no one would talk to me, my old friends abandoned me, and it made me question my belonging and lovability. I decided to tell the story of Henri’s life and personality and then to turn what happened to me into a “dog version” so that both stories could be combined. Children could learn about their own lovability through a dog who had helped me, later in life, feel my own.
And so I began the creation of Henri and the Magnificent Snort. It is about a French bulldog who moves from New York City to San Diego and is bullied because he snorts and then learns that he is lovable, snorts and all.
I love the book. I love that people all over the world have written to me about what it means to them. That people tell me that their children want to name their dogs “Henri.” I love that adults quote some of the lines from the book and see it as a book that isn’t just for kids. That they tell me it made them cry. Or that it’s their child’s favorite book. It has been a long and beautiful journey. Things have happened with the book that I didn’t even know I could hope for. This year, 2025, with the support of the Dr. Seuss Foundation, Henri and the Magnificent Snort is being used in San Diego elementary schools to teach students about bullying prevention, belonging, and love. That stops me in my tracks and makes me cry with gratitude. As does that one of Henri’s biggest champions and a true book angel has been Claudia Prescott, Dr. Seuss’s secretary. It is mind-blowing. (Claudia’s Irish Setter, Abby, is now painted into the newest editions of the book. So is Dr. Seuss’s Yorkshire Terrier, Sam.) Henri and the Magnificent Snort has also won a dozen book awards, including a Christopher Award, and it is featured by PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center.
The path to my book being out in the world was longer than I thought it would be. And originally, I’d thought that Henri would be with me as I promoted the book. I imagined us together in schools or libraries, me reading and him snorting and naturally charming people with his goofy sweetness. But an awful experience at a vet ended in his death, and then a lawsuit for animal rights, findings of negligence and concealment by a jury trial, and finally the specific vet surrendering his license. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I donated every penny I won from the lawsuit to Big Life Foundation in Africa, to drill a bore hole for elephants (one of my favorite animals) as well as for the local people in Kenya. It is going to be called the Henri Childs Water Bowl. I love that beauty can bloom from hard things. That growth can sprout from something painful. Like the bullying turning into the book that helps others. Like Henri’s death turning into a lawsuit win for animal rights and a watering hole to nourish animals and people. During the lawsuit, I used to look at the not yet published pages of Henri’s book and the words I’d written before his death and use those words as a compass. In the book, Henri stands up against bullying and for those who are bullied. With the lawsuit, I stood up for Henri and protecting future animals from his fate. And I’d read the line from the story, “When life gives us obstacles they are opportunities to grow, Just like storms feed the plants and give us rainbows.” And I would try and see how it was an opportunity for me to grow.
I’ve thought about this idea quite a bit this year. I’ve been exploring Ireland this year, and here you will see beautiful flowers blooming from stone walls and roofs. I love thinking that they are there because of bird poo. The beauty that can grow from the “poo” parts of life. The bigger picture, beyond our limited perspectives and pain. The idea that maybe all of it is part of our blooming.
So far I’ve spent this year healing and growing and getting inspired and writing and having new experiences. Doing things I didn’t think I could do. I’ve also been traveling a bit in Africa, which just feels so good for the soul. I hope to share more of myself and my experiences and ideas through my new writing. (I’ve read a bit in classes and at poetry nights in Dublin, which felt brave and invigorating. Sharing myself that way, in front of strangers. Afterwards people came up to me to tell me they were moved by what I wrote, and to tell me about how my writing connected to their own lives.) And I love that I also carry with me the old. It’s all part of the soil. Recently, I read Henri’s book at a library event in Northern Ireland. Afterwards there was an art project, and kids created bookmarks with drawings of the things that they loved and that made them magnificent. Many of the kids drew Henri on their bookmarks, between the other things they loved. One drew him as a karate champion and then showed me a karate move. Her mom said that she is usually so shy that she was shocked she showed me. It all touched my heart. It’s beautiful the ways lives can touch.
I love that feeling of connection. It can happen in many ways and writing is one of them. Connection in general is so magical. To others. To yourself. To the universe. To the past and the future. The feeling of oneness with everything. It’s the ultimate belonging. You feel like the universe is happening through you. It’s like you don’t really exist as something separate and you’re free in the most beautiful way. It’s hard to describe the feeling, but it feels like truth. Like something beyond rational thought. Like love. Like heaven on earth.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Animals, nature, traveling, connecting with people, deep conversations that shift how you see the world and yourself, creating, dancing, realizing that things are so much better than your mind was having you believe, synchronicities, encounters with strangers that feel like they were orchestrated by angels, children, playing, costume parties, good food, hiking, the ocean, a delicious night’s sleep, feeling seen and loved, knowing that you’ve connected with someone and that you make their life better, those moments where your perspective shifts and everything softens, watching birds flying, watching birds dance (I volunteered for a while at Free Flight in Del Mar and watching the birds dance to songs they loved – like “Love Shack” – brought me so much joy), time with my family and watching my parents laugh together, dogs and how wise and silly they seem at the same time, creating art, loving someone… there are a million things that make me happy. Beyond a million. The world is filled with so much beauty. It’s always there. I remember during covid I was working at the New Children’s Museum in Del Mar, and a woman started yelling at me about the museum’s mask policy and stormed out. I felt awful for a moment – the heat in my body from having just being yelled at – and then I looked to my right and saw a mother and her child playing together, and I felt overwhelmed by the beauty of it and thought, “I could have missed that. I could have sat here feeling that stranger’s anger and missed the beauty that was happening beside me.” There are always hard things and always beautiful things. There are so many realities all happening at once. It’s wonderful when you can tap into the ones that make you feel joyful and grateful to be alive. With perspective and time, in a way, they all do.
Pricing:
- $15.26 Hardcover Book (on Amazon)
- $13.99 Paperback Book
- $23.56 Hardcover Bilingual Version (Spanish & English)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://henriandthemagnificentsnort.com/
- Instagram: @henriandthemagnificentsnort & @henrilefrenchie
Image Credits
Samantha Childs with book: Photo by Eduardo Contreras
Henri on Del Mar Dog Beach: Photo by Samantha Childs
Book in hearts: Photo by Samantha Childs
Samantha Childs in tree in the Republic of Congo: Photo by Judith D. Leclerc
Snapdragons growing out of Irish wall: Photo by Samantha Childs
Henri: Photo by Samantha Childs
Samantha Childs with Claudia Prescott: Photo by Rachel Peniche
Henri and the Magnificent Snort: Photo by Samantha Childs
Samantha in Ireland: Photo by Beata Andrzejczak
