Editor’s Note: This is a writing assignment given (along with the above picture ) to a eight-year old by a parent.  He was asked to do a research report on dog sledding and add personal narrative as part of creative writing practice.  We post the story, the young child came up with..

My heart was pounding as I couldn’t wait to start the race. I had practiced for months and finally the big day had arrived. My teammates Jack, Joe and Frank and I were getting ourselves and our dogs ready for the annual dog sled race.  Soon after, the race started and Jack and Frank pushed the sled and then jumped in. Our sled was blue and was a gift from one of our friends to us for Christmas, the previous year. We had eight dogs and each one of us took care of two of the dogs year round. Our dogs were named Chester, Cruz, Brandy, Moonero, Runner, Barker, Spotty and Shadow. Our race started at Anchorage, Alaska and was to end in Juneau, Alaska. In the beginning, the terrain was rocky but soon it became smooth. I then took over the sled from Joe while Frank kept watch on the map and time.

According to Frank, we were by now 30 minutes into the race. Jack and Joe were helping and guiding me as there were many trees we could bump into. We were soon getting close to the parts of the border between Canada and Alaska. It was exciting as we were in the lead! Frank looked at the map and estimated that we would reach Juneau in about an hour. About 15 minutes later, I noticed that one of our team dogs was limping. It was Shadow! I panicked and immediately turned around to warn my friends. We decided to stop to look at Shadow even though it would mean that we were taking the risk of losing.

Joe took over the reins while the rest of us got off the sled and untied Shadow to give him first aid. Luckily, it was a mild bruise. We then hopped back on and continued the race, wondering what was going to happen now. To our surprise, when we reached the finishing line, we realized that we had actually won the race! We were very happy. Also, we were glad that we had not neglected our dog and had taken care of him. Our parents were very proud of us after they heard what had happened.

Aman Shah is an eight-year old, studying in third grade and lives in California with his parents and younger brother. He loves reading all kind of books — from Indian Mythology, mysteries, science fiction and encyclopedias, to magazines, biographies, etc. Apart from reading, Abacus math, karate and playing the violin are his hobbies.