by Annakai Geshlider, age 7

Literacy experts say reading aloud to one’s pet is a great way to become a more confident reader. It’s also really, really fun. In the Writing for Your Pet workshop, we teach students that cats and dogs have no interest in the sports pages. They want stories written just for them. As expected, our students are more than ready to meet the challenge. For the next week and a half, we’ll be sharing some of our favorite stories from the most recent session.

Far far away there is a land where me, Comet the cat, will one day rule. I will have lots and lots of scrumptious bugs to eat, and I will be famous. The far off land that I will one day rule, well … I will get to name it. It will be called Catzotown. All the cats there will love that name. There will be a big wall around it, so all the yucky dog-o-doggie’s can’t come in. There will also be posters all of Catzotown showing … pictures of me!

But as I am now, my hobbies are just running wild, stampeding across the floor, and drinking water from the sink. But when the time comes that I will rule Catzotown, I will learn lots of new things.