No Grinches Allowed

They couldn’t have picked a more nonsensical way to do it.

Tales of yopps and loraxes, of sneetches hiding out in lerkims. Of moose that hatch eggs in trees, of Ooblek and the Kingdom of Didd.

Educators across Los Angeles who are struggling to teach children how to read turned to the most whimsical voice imaginable--Dr. Seuss--when they decided Monday to really get serious.

Teachers and principals invited volunteers into classrooms to read selections from the famed Dr. Seuss children’s books to launch “Read Across America,” a national literacy campaign aimed at showing youngsters that reading is not just fundamental--it’s fun.

It turns out that it was a good choice of authors.

“I like to read Dr. Seuss. His stories are good. Especially ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ ” said 9-year-old Joseph Weimer, a fourth-grader at 3rd Street Elementary School in Los Angeles.

Joseph was among 2,000 youngsters who crowded into the Wiltern Theatre for one of dozens of reading events. That’s where professional actors took turns reading parts from half a dozen Seuss books--including Joseph’s favorite.

The goal of Monday’s reading day was to put a storybook in front of every child in the United States, according to its sponsor, the National Education Assn. The event was part of a weeklong campaign timed to correspond with what would have been the 94th birthday of the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, author of 47 Seuss books.

Some local supporters of “Read Across America” were almost as innovative as Dr. Seuss in coming up with ways to make the day fun.

Teachers and pupils at Longfellow Elementary School in Compton came to school dressed in bedtime-storylike pajamas, nightgowns and slippers. Youngsters lounged on carpeted classroom floors on pillows as Seuss books and others were read to them.

“I got a lot of looks on the freeway on the way to work,” said Principal Tamara Branch, who wore a giant “Cat in the Hat” hat over her pajamas, robe and colorful Sesame Street bedroom slippers as she read Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” to kindergarten pupils.

Older pupils listened intently as volunteer Melba Binion read selections from black poets, including century-old work by Paul Laurence Dunbar. But the class really sprang to life when Binion read from a faded, handwritten slavery register dating from 1824. Among those listed: her husband’s grandfather.

Elsewhere on the Longfellow campus, students had joined together to hand-stitch quilts celebrating story characters. The colorful coverings hung like artwork in the school’s multipurpose room.

At the nearby Compton school headquarters, balloons and a band welcomed 800 children who came to listen as community volunteers took turns reading aloud to them.

Across town, students from Cal State L.A. traveled to four elementary schools for presentations designed to stimulate young children to pick up a book.

At City Terrace Elementary School on the Eastside, the university students listened as Principal Robert Cordova read a Dr. Seuss story before staging their own version of “The Three Little Pigs.”

“In our story, the wolf is the good guy,” said Maria Almejo, a senior child development major wearing pink paper pig ears. “The wolf was framed--he was only trying to borrow a cup of sugar so he could bake a cake for his grandmother when he happened to sneeze and blow down the house.”

“You can help get kids involved in reading by getting them excited,” added Gabby Oseguera, a Cal State L.A. junior.

Other reading events organized for Monday included a family literacy night with stories read in English, Spanish and Armenian by DARE officers, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, poet Rita White and children’s author Mark Beckwith at Monlux Elementary School in North Hollywood.

At the Wiltern Theatre, representatives from the Screen Actors Guild Foundation brought half a dozen of Seuss’ books to life before pupils from throughout Los Angeles.

Actors Barbara Bosson, Marabina Jaimes, Mitch Ryan, Adam Springfield, James Sikking, Pamela Reed, David Gray, Richard Masur and Barbara Bain drew applause and cheers with “The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins” and “Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose.”

The actors’ foundation is already a familiar presence in many Los Angeles-area classrooms. Its Book PALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) provides actors to read to 6,000 children at 55 schools each week.

Bain, former star of “Mission: Impossible,” launched Book PALS six years ago. It has now expanded to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix--cities where the group is also helping sponsor “Read Across America” programs this week.

Actors can help bring stories alive. But so can virtually any adult, Bain said.

“Ultimately, I think anybody can read to a child. The intimacy--just doing it--is more important than the story. And most people in spite of themselves do get caught up in the story when they read to a child,” she said.

The use of Dr. Seuss as the theme of the national reading program was praised by Springfield, a 15-year-old actor from the PBS series “Wishbone” who reads weekly to second- and third-graders at Burbank Elementary School.

Geisel’s inventiveness with words lets youngsters’ imaginations soar, he said.

“I love Dr. Seuss and the images of the words he uses. Who else comes up with words like ‘Thneed’? What does it mean? Who knows,” Springfield said. “If everybody had an imagination like he did, wouldn’t this world be different?”

Many of those listening Monday said Dr. Seuss’ Grinches and Cats in the Hats have set them off on a lifetime of reading.

“My mom used to read them to me,” said Emmanuel Salcedo, 11, a fifth-grader at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima. “Now I read older stories myself.”