Today I’m featuring the writing of Grace DelVecchio, my brother Mike’s youngest child. She is in 7^th grade now, but when she was in 2^nd grade, one of her assignments was to write a story—about anything she wanted—that showed her knowledge of dinosaurs. Grace wrote “The Family that I Love.” Her teacher had it bound in book form, and all of us in the family got copies. It’s a very special book (if you read it below, you’ll see why), and we pull it out every few months and read it again. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. I selected a few pictures of book pages to share as well, but the full text follows.

“The Family that I Love” by Grace Del Vecchio, 2^nd grade, 2007-2008

Hi! I’m Grace and I’m here to tell you about my family. We are the DelVecchiosaurus herd.

My dad is the king of the herd. He is a T-Rex.

My mom is an Allosaurus. She is the Queen.

Anna is half T-Rex and half Allosaurus, but she acts like a Stracasaurus. It seems like she is always charging into me. She is the teenage dinosaur.

Sarah is also half T-Rex and half Allosaurus, but she is sweet like the Psittacosaurus.

I also have a brother dinosaur. His name is Luke. He is like the Janenschia. It is difficult to describe him because there is not much known about him. He has Autism. I’ve loved him ever since I was a little dinosaur and that will never change.

Some of my friends think he’s weird and that makes me sad. If they make fun of him, I defend him.

I am Grace, half T-Rex and half Allosaurus.

When they make fun of Luke, I feel like a Velociraptor. I use my sharp teeth to defend him. Luke doesn’t seem to get what his sharp teeth are for some reason.

He is still a lot of fun to be with. We like to go to the playground together.

We like to eat the plants and run around. He is the best brother dinosaur in the world.

I hoped you liked meeting my family. The End.

This book is dedicated to my brother Luke. It is a true story of our family (except we are not really dinosaurs). Luke may not be able to do the things we can do, but he is still a lot of fun to be with. I love him because he is my brother. God has a special plan for him in his life.

*MY note: By the way, though then-7-year-old Grace may have seen then-teenager Anna as “charging,” she, like Sarah and Grace herself, is WONDERFUL and has grown into a remarkable young lady (you, too, Sarah!).