When Whitney retires, can she be a reading buddy?

Whitney got a lotta love from the Goudy kids.

A week ago at this time, Whitney and I were answering questions from third-graders who attend Goudy Elementary, a Public school in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. The third graders are part of a Friday “reading buddies” program at Admiral At the Lake, a retirement community where I lead weekly memoir-writing classes.

Goudy is near The Admiral. The third grade teacher and her students walk over, and on most Fridays each third-grader reads out loud to an assigned Admiral resident, their “reading buddy.”

Last Friday, things were different. The third-graders had all read my children’s book Safe & Sound before they’d arrived, and each one wrote a question on a card that they could ask me when it was their turn. Every single child told me their name, then introduced their question a la, “Hello, my name is Sunil, and here’s my question…”. Their older reading buddies were sitting further away, so I made a point to repeat each question. That way they could hear it, too. Some examples:

1. What’s your dog’s favorite toy to play with?
2. What’s it feel like, being blind?
3. How does your dog know where he’s going?
4. Can your dog talk?
5. How old is your dog?
6. Do you like cats?
7. What’s your dog’s favorite game?
8. How old are you?
9. How do you know what you’re wearing?
10. How do you cook?

The afternoon was delightful, and so were the children. Four of the older reading buddies take my memoir-writing classes, and one of them was the mastermind who came up with the idea for Whitney and me to come Friday (thank you, Kate). Another sent me an email afterwards crediting the teacher for having the kids write their questions out ahead of time. “All of them were able to take their turn and speak directly to you,” she said. “The interaction wasn’t just with the most vocal in the group, everyone had a chance to participate.”

The kids really were very, very well-behaved. As a reward, I took Whitney’s harness off and invited them to pet her on their way out the door for their walk back to Goudy. . from Whitney’s happy response, you’d think she was still a puppy! As the knowledgeable third-graders can tell you, Whitney is almost as old as they are. I’ll say goodbye here and leave you with the final words from that email review one of their reading buddies sent me:

But for me the most poignant question was the one about how old Whitney is. It is hard to absorb the fact that she is almost 9 years old and approaching a time she may need to retire. I have now known you and Whitney for seven years and I confess that I still think of her, not as a puppy, but certainly as a young and vibrant dog, and it is a shock to think of her as a senior citizen!