Butler's Blue II stars in his own children's book

He served as Butler’s mascot from 2004-2013, accompanied the Butler men’s basketball team to back-to-back Final Fours in 2010 and 2011, met presidents and other dignitaries, and had more than 12,000 Twitter followers.

And now, Butler Blue II is the star of his own children’s book, Good Boy, Blue! (Mascot Books, $14.95), available at the Butler bookstore and through goodboyblue.bkstr.com, MascotBooks.com and Amazon.com.

“I’m always looking for ways to utilize our mascot program in a way that connects the larger community to Butler,” said Michael Kaltenmark, handler for Blue II and his successor, Blue III. “Publishing a children’s book seemed like a strategy that could tackle those goals head-on, so I went for it. Not to mention, the character of these dogs really lend themselves to children’s literature and related illustrations. It’s a perfect fit.”

The story, written by Kaltenmark and illustrated by Jingo M. de la Rosa, tells the story of Blue II as a pup, trying to find his way and make sense of right versus wrong in his life. Kaltenmark said his intention was to offer positive lessons to children while conveying the principles and overall sentiment of “The Butler Way”—without ever stating that in the book.

Blue II retired at the end of the 2012-2013 basketball season and died of heart failure in August 2013. He was 9.

Blue III—better known as Trip—has taken over as Butler’s live mascot.

Kaltenmark, who is also Butler’s Director of Web Marketing, said Trip inspires him to write more stories. But for now, he’s concentrating on Good Boy, Blue!

“I hope we sell a lot of copies,” Kaltenmark said, “but beyond that I would love to connect it to a larger literacy program that would allow us to take Butler Blue into area schools and talk about the book, literacy, Butler University, and more.”

Proceeds from the book support the University’s live mascot program.

Kaltenmark will be signing the book at these locations: