Together they created the illustrations for a children’s book, Hallie and the Spirit of San Clemente, authored by Sandra Marquez Stathis. A former journalist, Stathis was inspired to write the book by a statue of a yellow Labrador retriever located outside a restaurant in San Clemente. The book tells the story of two children who are led on a tour of the history of the Orange County, California coastal town by a magical dog statue.

The Alvarados worked for two months on the project; Alex sketched the illustrations and scanned them into the computer, and then Holli painted them.  They produced 32 illustrations together, and Alex created the cover image on his own.

More info: “Son’s love of dog statue inspires book” on Orange County Register; Hallie the Dog web site.