At the end of a storytelling at the Guelph Public Library in 2009, Taya Kendall came up to me and said that she was putting out a school newspaper. Not bad for someone in Grade Three. She wanted to know if she could put one of my stories in her newspaper. I suggested that she use “Braids,” which I had told with her name in it at the library. I often give unpublished stories to kids, and that is that.
Well, not only did she use it in the newspaper, she published it as a book, with artwork by a different kid for each page – all students at Sir Issac Brock Public School – including her six-year-old sister Eden. Not bad for someone in Grade 3.
Taya sold the book as a fundraiser for a charity called Children of Bukati, which supports orphans and poor children in the rural village of Butula, Kenya, and their school, Bukati Primary School. Taya has raised thousands of dollars for the children of Bukati. Not bad for someone in Grade Three!
