Students celebrate National Pet Writing Month

Did you know that there are four weeks (or 196 dog days) every spring when young people all around the nation (or at least around 826 Valencia) take time to write poems, plays, stories, and letters to and for their pets? Well, at 826 Valencia, those weeks have been deemed National Pet Writing Month, and this year resulted in some incredible student work!

On April 7th, 826 Valencia students, parents and tutors came together to celebrate the (wagging) tail end of 2011’s National Pet Writing Month by reading from It Is A Hard Job Taking Care of One, the first-ever collection of pet writing by 826 Valencia’s after-school tutoring students. This beautiful chapbook is full of heartfelt gems and instant classics like “Letter to a Fish” by ten year-old Oscar Ticas:

Dear fish, I love you. You are the best fish. You’re so cool. I think you’re nice. I hope you don’t get sick. Nice gills. I hope you grow up to be a big, big, big shark someday. Are you going to be a shark or fish?

From,

Oscar

When asked about how he enjoyed the reading, M.C. Giraffe Justin was speechless, but all of the other humans and imaginary pets in attendance assured us that they had a fantastic time.