Students typically read the classic, Animal Farm, by the brilliant George Orwell, in 9th or 10th grade. The message is so important and the writing is so good that I resolved to read it aloud to my younger kids, presently aged 13, 11, and 8. They loved it. But they also began to despair, as they should, as Napoleon the pig took the reins of the farm.

As we closed on the final two chapters, my kids implored me: does it have a happy ending? Alas, I had to say, it does not. The ending by Orwell is true and profound, but it is not (such is the way of the world) happy.

But I dared not let my kids down. So I wrote an alternative ending. Here it is, starting at Chapter IX. I propose that we use this because we all, young and old, yearn for the good to win and for tyrants to lose!