Pet donkey inspires children to publish book

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Mark Woodbury
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) --  Three children of an Airman here have completed a two-year project and published their story.

Myles, Scarlett and Preston Gallagher are the children of Chief Master Sgt. Richard Gallagher and his wife, Gwenyth. The youngster published a children's book, "The Adventures of 'Sweet Pea' the Donkey," about their pet donkey that was housed at the stables here.

Sweet Pea takes on human characteristics in the book and shares her different experiences with her friends – horses -- at the Edwards' stables.

"This has been a project that the kids really wanted to see happen," said the mother of the authors. "I always encouraged them to write down the different story ideas they came up with concerning Sweet Pea, but once those stories were put on paper the kids really were the driving force behind wanting to get the stories published into a book."

The roughly 28-page book has a different Sweet Pea story on each page with an illustration drawn by 9-year-old Scarlett that goes along with each story.

"I hope that people like it," said Scarlett. "We put a lot of time and hard work into the book. The hardest part for me was thinking of a picture to go along with each story."

Throughout the editing process, the authors were very particular in making sure that their words were kept true to what they wrote.

"The kids really made sure that their words were not changed," said Mrs. Gallagher. "Except for grammatical changes, this book is what the kids wrote. I think this will allow the children who read the book the experience of reading stories from kids their same age."

The children said they enjoy their author status.

"It feels really cool to have a book published with our name on it" said 11-year-old Myles.

Now that the children have accomplished their goal of getting their book published, they are thinking about their long-term career goals. Myles wants to become an architect, zoologist or archeologist. Scarlett wants to be a veterinarian and study zoology.

Mrs. Gallagher said she is encouraging 7-year-old Preston to go onto college, but afterward he wants to work in construction.

The Gallagher children are currently working on a second book that will highlight Sweet Pea's adventures at her new home on the family’s property off base.