Celebrating the Places Readers Go

In Roberta Goodman’s first-grade classroom at El Morro Elementary in Laguna Beach, the students’ desks were laden Friday with favorite Dr. Seuss books. A Dr. Seuss birthday cake begged to be cut. On a clothesline hung paper hats like those in “The Cat in the Hat,” labeled with examples of Seussian words: zizzer-zazzer-zuzz, zongywas, kerchoo, to name a few.

Forty children from Goodman’s and from Cheri David’s first-grade classrooms listened intently to volunteer Jill Doran read Dr. Seuss’ “The Sneetches,” a whimsical tale in which plain-bellied creatures are considered inferior to those with green stars on their bellies.

“What’s the message Dr. Seuss is trying to get across?” David said at the end of Doran’s animated reading.

A half-dozen hands shot up.

“That we’re not all alike and it doesn’t matter,” offered first-grader Emily Layton.

At no other time do tall, striped stovepipe hats so dominate the landscape.

The fourth annual Seussfest known as Read Across America took over schools nationwide Friday on the birthday of the late children’s author and illustrator Theodor Geisel, the beloved Dr. Seuss. The celebration of reading was expected to touch more than 30 million children and adults around the nation, if not the world.

“Oh, I love reading Dr. Seuss books. When I was little, they were the first books I read,” said El Morro fourth-grader Morgan Somerset, who helped escort the 30 community readers to their classrooms.

Schools throughout Orange County joined in the annual reading celebration sponsored by the National Education Assn.

In addition to classroom readings by community members, there were read-a-thons and reading pajama parties (stuffed animals optional). Dr. Seuss hats were the order of the day for many staff members and volunteer readers, and the bill of fare in many school cafeterias included that Seussian favorite, green eggs and ham.

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Now in its fourth year, Read Across America is billed as the largest literacy event in the nation, if not the world, and organizers expected participation to exceed the approximately 30 million children and adults who took part last year.

In the Garden Grove Unified School District, virtually all 45 elementary schools participated “in one way or the other” this year, said Supt. Laura Schwalm.

“It’s motivational--to show kids that reading not only is critical, but it’s also very enjoyable,” said Schwalm, who took her turn reading to students in four classrooms Friday.

But not every school in Orange County has jumped on the Read Across America bandwagon.

In the Cypress School District, only three of 10 elementary schools joined in the day-long reading celebration. Supt. Bill Eller said he didn’t push his schools to participate. There was, he felt, no need.

“There is nothing magical about a particular day in time,” he said. While he supports Read Across America, Eller said, “reading is so important that to associate it with a specific day and a specific program really doesn’t do it justice.”

Like many other schools in Orange County, Eller said, all of his district’s schools invite community members into classrooms to read to students throughout the school year, including the mayor, the fire chief and corporate CEOs.

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Bob Chase, president of the 2.6-million-member National Education Assn., is the first to agree with Eller.

“It’s important to have the days he’s talking about, to have that activity year-round,” Chase said by phone from NEA headquarters in Washington D.C. “But Read Across America is our attempt really to shine a light on reading, to have a focus on it and have every adult understand that they can--and do--make a difference in making reading a priority in their homes and communities.”

At El Morro Elementary, librarian Claudia Cameron said the Seuss day is just one of many reading activities offered throughout the school year.

Community members read to students six times a year--third-grade teacher Mary Blanton even has visitors read every Friday--and Reading Is Fundamental, a federally funded program, provides free paperbacks to students. There’s also an after-school literary club that meets in the library.

Some Orange County schools bucked the Dr. Seuss theme. As part of its weeklong celebration of reading, Violette Elementary School in Garden Grove had visitors dressed as characters from the popular Harry Potter book series visit classrooms Wednesday.

At Marian Bergeson Elementary School in Laguna Niguel, children’s book illustrator Richard Zeilher-Martin discussed the life of an illustrator. And at Tijeras Creek Elementary School in Rancho Santa Margarita, children’s author John Archambault discussed reading and writing.