CEDAR FALLS - Sometimes you just know.

Well-known children's author Maribeth Boelts and her husband, Darwin, were looking for a "yellowish" dog to fill the void left by the loss of Peaches, the family dog who'd given them such joy for so many years. They wanted to rescue another shelter dog and had stopped at the Cedar Bend Humane Society. In the last kennel sat a rather forlorn-looking dog. A lab-rottweiler mix, the Boelts were told. In the time it took to take the dog out to get acquainted, the Boelts were smitten.

"She was the one for us. She chose us. She's an awesome dog. We call her Dixie," says Boelts, who lives in Cedar Falls.

Dixie's story - or lack of - was the inspiration for Boelts' latest picture book, "Before You Were Mine," which is being released Sept. 20 by Putnam's Sons, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group. In her characteristically heartwarming style, Boelts writes about a boy who wonders what his dog's life was like before he was adopted from the shelter. Was the dog scared? Did the dog have a boy? Did he get lost? Was he abandoned? Ultimately, the boy realizes it doesn't matter because the dog has a home - a real one and in the boy's heart.

The book is illustrated by David Walker ("Puppies, Puppies Puppies!"), owner of two adopted Dalmatians. Walker says he is "lucky enough to have had five dogs throughout my life, all of them adopted from animal shelters."

After Dixie's adoption, the family "started wondering about what she was like before she was ours: how she ended up at the shelter, where she came from, how she'd been treated."

"She was found roaming with another dog in the state park. I'm glad they thought she'd make someone a good dog because she is … gentle, happy and sweet. The story was in my head for a year before I sat down to write," Boelts said.

Portions of the profits of the book will be donated to the Cedar Bend Humane Society and the Humane Society of the United States.

"I hope parents reading the book with their children would be encouraged to look to shelters and rescues for adopting their pets. And look at older dogs, too, because they have so much to offer," Boelts says.

Although the book hasn't been officially released, feedback has been overwhelming. Celebrities such as Betty White, a well-known animal advocate, have written the author, and actress Candice Bergen wrote the dust-jacket blurb.

Penguin Putnam Book Sellers chose "Before You Were Mine" as the "rep pick" for fall, and the video and audio rights have been purchased for a video to be put into production.

A second fall release from Candlewick Press, "Those Shoes," is being released Sept. 20. The illustrator is Noah Z. Jones. The picture book is about a young boy who longs for a pair of sneakers all the other kids are wearing, but his grandmother can't afford them. He spies a pair at a thrift shop, but the shoes are a size too small. He buys them and wears them, in spite of his aching feet. At school, he notices another poor boy with smaller feet. Should he be generous and give him the sneakers?

The author also completed a novel last year for middle-school readers with dog fighting as the central theme. The book probably will be published in 2008.

Boelts' first children's books were published in the 1990s. A Waterloo native, she is a 1982 graduate of Columbus High School and received an elementary education degree from University of Northern Iowa in 1987. She taught preschool at St. John's-St. Nicholas Elementary School in Evansdale before giving up her teaching job in 1990 to stay home with her three children (one is now grown, another in college).

She writes about real-life issues, ranging from the first and last days of school, making friends and loss to divorce and more.

"I think kids want to feel understood, and I remember, as a child, feeling understood by my favorite authors. I have a good memory of what it's like to be 6, 7 or 8. All kids love a good story. I don't think that has changed."