Greyt Stuff GAP supporter blog - Matt Brizzell talks about Viento

A number of years ago, my sister and her family adopted Leia, an ex-racer. She’d apparently been a failure of a racer, coming either second to last, or dead last, in all her races. Through the process of Leia’s adoption and transition to family living, I’d seen her end up “winning” in life. I thought it was a nice little moral that said: "you can still find your place to win in life. Even if it’s not where it might be expected".

As part of a Creative Writing degree I’ve just completed, I had the idea of using that for a project and I teamed up with Sarah, who illustrated the book. From the outset we both wanted something that could be educative, creative, as well as entertaining. This resulted in two editions, The Classic Edition and the Activity Edition, providing the ability to learn and practice writing skills, as well as the creative expression through colouring. 

We ended up calling the book Viento, which means "wind" in Spanish. It comes from the saying to run like the wind. Sarah also found that it can mean rope as well, with an explanation that expressed the idea of a rope that binds together. Thus giving the idea that Viento could be something to bind together, like a family, as pets can do.

https://shop.greyhoundsaspets.org.nz/collections/greyt-gifts