This week the Bookworm Beat takes a walk on the lighter side with a talk with Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell about his new children?s book ?The Gift of Nothing?. Mutts is a comic strip with heart, and is not only funny, but also advocates the humane treatment of animals.

Every family has them: that wise guy who doesn?t want anything for Christmas, the idealist who wants world peace, the dad who has a thousand neckties ? finally there?s a gift for all of them, ?The Gift of Nothing?.

?The Gift of Nothing? is a short picture book by cartoonist Patrick McDonnell. The book features characters from Mr. McDonnell?s popular comic strip Mutts about a lisping cat named Mooch and his best friend, a dog named Earl, and their respective owners.

?The Gift of Nothing? is about Mooch?s quest to find the perfect gift for Earl, nothing.

Mr. McDonnell manages to artfully pack into the short book such weighty topics as materialism, togetherness, love and friendship.

Although Mr. McDonnell?s 10th cartoon compilation ?Who Let the Cat Out: Mutts X? was released in April, ?The Gift of Nothing? is his first children?s book. So far it has been well received.

?It has been on the New York Times bestseller list for three weeks,? Mr. McDonnell told the Bookworm Beat from his home in New Jersey. ?So I am very happy about that. There will be a second Mutts book this fall. I am still working on the title. The working title so far is ?Just Like Heaven?. It is written in the same tone. It is a little companion piece.?

Mr. McDonnell said he had been wanting to write a children?s book for a long time, but found it hard due to the demands of drawing a daily comic strip.

?Little Brown was nice enough to publish it,? he said. ?It is a different vehicle. I did it with their children?s book division but I wrote it for all ages.?

Not only is it for people of all ages, but also people of all nationalities. It will soon be translated into seven different languages, and has already been translated into Japanese.

The strip itself can also be found all over the world. Mr. McDonnell said one of the reasons it translates well into other cultures is that the strip is simple.

?It is pretty universal,? he said. ?I talk about that bond that all people have with their pets. I talk about the weather a lot. I keep it to more nature and things everyone can relate to ? the important stuff that gets overlooked all the time.?

Mr. McDonnell started drawing Mutts in 1994 after a career as a magazine illustrator.

?We are going into our twelfth year,? he said. ?Before I did Mutts I was a magazine illustrator for Sports Illustrated and I did a monthly comic strip for Parents Magazine, among other things.?

The common denominator in Mr. McDonnell?s early illustration work was a little white dog with black ears who frequently sneaked into the picture.

?He was based on my own dog, Earl,? said Mr. McDonnell. ?I always though he would be a great cartoon character.?

When Mr. McDonnell finally sat down to draw Mutts he thought that Earl would be the main character, but cats have a way of taking over.

?Before you knew it, Mutts became a cat and dog strip,? said Mr. McDonnell. ?That is how it started. All the cats I had as a child followed me home. Mooch definitely adopted Mutts.?

The real Earl is now 17 years old. A few years ago Mr. McDonnell and his wife were adopted by a little lost cat they named Meemow.

?My wife rescued our cat from a parking garage,? said Mr. McDonnell. ?She doesn?t really look or act like Mooch.?

As cute as his characters are, there is a definite message behind the comic strip. Many of Mr. McDonnell?s cartoon strips feature the stories of animals in shelters. Another more sad character called Guard Dog spends his life tied to a chain, waiting for someone to come and take him for a walk. Another character, a tiny tiger striped kitten, worries about the plight of endangered animals in the world.

His characters may be cute and fuzzy, but Mr. McDonnell uses them to make a roar for animal rights.

?One of the reasons I wanted to do a strip about a dog was my love for animals,? said Mr. McDonnell. ?I try to make my characters more animal like. I use Earl and Mooch to capture the special relationship that animals and humans have.

?Getting into specific issues slowly evolved. Because Earl and Mooch came from loving homes I started thinking about shelter animals. I started doing shelter animals a couple of years into the strip.?

Mr. McDonnell is now on the board of directors of the American Humane Society, and he and his wife are very active within the organisation.

?The thing I am most proud of, is when I get letters from people who say the strip inspired them to adopt a cat or a dog as a companion for the house,? he said. ? When someone goes to a shelter and adopts an animal that is great. It is very rewarding and satisfying.?

For more information go to www.muttscomics.com .