"Dog Heaven"

Yesterday after school, Hannah sat down at the kitchen table and started to write a story. She got Courtney to be the illustrator (although it turned out Courtney only drew the first picture). She asked me how to spell several words, but the story was completely her own creation.

Here is her story (the three pictures follow). I’ve tried to type it just as she has it written.

Dog Heaven

ill. By Courtney
written by Hannah

When dogs die there is a place they can go dog heaven. Up there in dog heaven god likes all the dogs there. He likes big ones and small ones. Ones with big ears. And ones with small ears. Ones who like hot dogs and ones who do not. Ones that died in Hawaii and ones that died in Pennsylvania. He likes them all!

But one day on Mars an alien baby was born a bad alien. Who stol all the dogs in dog heaven! God was so sad. Jesus found out that he was sad so he got all the dogs back! God was so happy he gave Jesus a gold medal for it. And they lived happy ever after.


(This is the picture that Courtney drew -- I love the upside-down dog!)

When she read it to McKay, he told her he didn’t think she should use “God” and “Jesus” in her story, and I told her she probably shouldn’t if she wrote a story for school. But after reading her story again, I was quite struck at some of the symbolism and parallels you could make from it!