Braids

It's Saturday morning and Ashley just wants to go outside and play. Who cares if her hair is messy? Mom does! Ashley hates it when her mom puts braids in her hair. It looks nice when it's done, but she has to sit still for hours while her mom brushes and pulls and braids: back and forth, up and down, round and round. It takes ALLLL day, and Ashley never has time to do anything fun. That is, until Grandma comes for a visit, and they decide that it's time to braid MOM'S hair!

At the end of a storytelling show at the Guelph Public Library in 2009, Taya came up to Robert Munsch and asked if she could put one of his stories in her school newspaper. He suggested that she use "Braids," which he had told with her name in it at the library. And not only did she use it in the newspaper, she published it as a book, with each page featuring artwork by a different kid, including her little sister Eden.

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, as well as their school, Bukati Primary School. Taya raised thousands of dollars for the children of Bukati. Not bad for someone in Grade 3!

Author: Robert Munsch. Paperback. 3+ years.