Schools Honor Dr. Seuss at Reading Event

Schools in Ventura County and across the country celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday Monday with the first nationwide “Read Across America” event.

Theodor Geisel--a.k.a. Dr. Seuss--was author of 47 children’s books, including “Green Eggs and Ham.” Born in 1904, he died in 1991.

The nationwide reading event, sponsored by the National Education Assn., was celebrated in different ways by different schools.

Westlake Hills Elementary School in Thousand Oaks took a creative approach: Teachers dressed up as storybook characters and children created a giant paper quilt with each square showing the different titles students had read. In the afternoon, children paired up on the lawn, with older students reading to younger ones.

In Los Angeles, actors from the Screen Actors Guild--including Kirk Douglas via video screen--were scheduled to read to about 2,000 students at the Greek Theatre near Hollywood.