WOODLAND HILLS : Celebration, Costumes Teach Love of Books

Whether in a hat or with a cat, in a box or with a fox, the children at Castlemont School in Woodland Hills will spend this week learning to love books.

As part of the private elementary school’s yearly celebration of National Book Week, students dressed up Tuesday as their favorite book characters.

This year’s Book Week theme is, “Books for Everyone and Everyone for Books.”

Teachers introduced youngsters to the rest of the school, explaining which literary figure each had chosen to be for the occasion.

Among the characters represented were a couple Cats in the Hats, several Sleeping Beauties, an Encyclopedia Brown or two and at least one Mr. Cheese Head, said Joyce Gallien, assistant director at Castlemont and coordinator of the school’s Book Day.

Also on hand for the celebration was Diane Wolkstein, a writer, storyteller and teacher, who read to the children.

To incorporate what the youngsters learned about storytelling with their regular reading program, Castlemont teachers will have their classes create a project to be sent to Wolkstein.

“I heard some teachers talking about it at lunch and they want their students to write their own folk tales,” Gallien said.

Recording stories written in groups on cassette and making books of bound poetry were other ideas that were tossed around the faculty lunchroom after Tuesday’s event.