Before the Pirates

Imagine if a writing center for kids wasn’t just a writing center for kids? What if it was also a pirate store, selling peg legs and eye patches to the neighborhood’s buccaneers? To mark the 20th anniversary of groundbreaking nonprofit 826 Valencia, its founders asked the organization’s youngest students to help write real and imagined origin stories for the famed storefront in San Francisco’s Mission District. Award-winning illustrator Angel Chang provides lush, color-soaked images of the students’ unexpected theories to accompany the wry, warm-hearted text.

This is a benefit for 826 Valencia, and proceeds support its free writing and tutoring programs for school-aged students.

Angel Chang is an artist, illustrator and art director. She is born with a sensitive heart and is drawn to observe connections between all manner of things. After receiving her MFA diploma from the Academy of Art University, she started her full-time illustrator life. She has lived in San Francisco and New York during her training in art. Now she lives and illustrates in Tamsui, Taiwan.

Dave Eggers is the author of many books for children and adults. He’s the co-founder of 826 Valencia.