We are three Transition Year students, Hazel Maher, Danica Tervit- Kruger and Niamh Brett in Presentation Kilkenny. We took part in the Mini Company Entrepreneur programme in our school. We brainstormed a few ideas and came to the conclusion that the most innovative idea was to write a children’s book not just for entertainment purposes but also to educate young children about rescuing animals and the ‘Adopt don’t shop’ campaign when getting a pet.
Our book is called The Little Lost Puppy and we plan on writing a collection of other books about different animals from the ‘My Lovely Horse Rescue’ that we have partnered up with.
We contacted the rescue through Instagram and they were more than happy to team up with us on our mission. We based our story on one of the rescue’s longest residents Britney, a dog that was used for breeding and then discarded. Britney, who is called Bella in our story, had spent almost one year in the care of the My Lovely Horse Rescue team. She has watched her friends come and go and was patiently waiting for a loving family. Britney has had many litters of puppies who were sold on for profit making purposes which we highlight in our book. Luckily, those days are now behind her as she was lucky enough to finally get adopted over the Christmas period. We decided to write the story about Britney as we disagree with the breeding of animals when Ireland’s rescues are currently bursting at the seams with unwanted animals. We also think it is so important for not just children but for everyone to know that we should Adopt and not shop! After we had finished writing our book and got it printed we then went to MacDonagh Shopping Centre, Kilkenny and started to sell some books. After that we went to the RDS in Dublin and sold a few more and a few weeks after that we sold more books at our school Christmas market. We set up social media platforms so that people can see behind the scenes of our progress of writing the book and more information about the rescue and Britney’s story.
To help expand our business and sales we have now decided to sell some of our books in various book shops around Kilkenny, we are delighted to confirm that we will be setting up a stand and selling some of our books in both Khan’s Book shop and in the Book Centre in Kilkenny City. Khan’s Book shop has supported and helped us a lot by suggesting that we do a book launch for our story book.
We are very grateful to The Kilkenny Observer for this opportunity and we feel it will be very beneficial to our business.
