Read Across America Day -- March 1, 2013

In 1997, a reading task force for the National Education Association proposed a day to celebrate books and motivate readers.  Their contention was "We hold pep rallies to get kids excited about football. Why don't we do something to get kids excited about reading? We'll call it 'NEA's Read Across America' and we'll celebrate it on Dr. Seuss's birthday."  And so on March 2, 1998, kids all over the United States participated in the largest celebration of reading the country had ever seen.  Readers in schools, libraries, and child care centers took part to celebrate the birthday and the work of Dr. Seuss.  

The party gets bigger with each passing year and those readers are no longer just children and their teachers.  This is the day that all types of guests are invited to join in the fun.  Politicians, fire fighters, garbage men, soldiers, news anchors, and sports figures don the red and white striped hat and take part in festivities across America. 

These events aren’t just occurring in classrooms and libraries anymore.  Churches, community centers, hospitals, shopping malls, and bookstores have taken the pledge to take part.  In 1998, the event’s main focus was reading, now Read Across America day is meant to commemorate reading, learning, and community.  The Cat in the Hat is the mascot for the festivities.  In some cities children enjoy green eggs and ham for lunch while others wear top hats and tails all through the day. 

Kids all over the world see pictures of the Cat in the Hat and instantly associate him with Dr. Seuss.  The self-proclaimed Doctor claimed that the cat was his alter ego.  Seuss was more a shy, quiet chap, but the cat allowed him to be whimsical and silly among his close friends.  Those closest to him knew he had liked to wear silly hats and share his nonsense rhymes, but he had no children of his own to share them with.  When asked about children who enjoyed his books, he most commonly responded, “You make ‘em, I’ll amuse ‘em.” 

When he wrote The Cat In the Hat in 1957, Seuss changed his focus from entertaining children to teaching them to read.  With the success of The Cat he and his wife, author Helen Palmer, founded a division of Random House called beginner books.  Although he didn’t begin his book career with the goal of teaching children to read, he became America’s best-known reading teacher.

Seuss didn’t just want to teach kids to read, he also wanted to teach them to think.  Over his extensive career, he created stories with messages about bullying, greed, laziness, community, and the environment.  In some of his works his message is plain; in others he encourages the reader to develop his own opinion.  Adults re-reading selections by Seuss as 30 or 40-somethings discover much more than the simple nonsense poems they remembered as children. 

2012 marked a milestone in the Seuss legacy.  Last year we celebrated the 75^th anniversary of his debut title, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, a story about a boy named Marco and the fantastic creatures he sees on his walk home.  The story features the street when Seuss lived as a young boy in Springfield, Massachusetts.

 

It’s not too late to host a Read Across America event.  Visit the National Education Association for more information.   For cool coloring sheets, craft projects, games, puzzles, and more, visit Seussville.    There are tons of links for readers, parents and teachers.  Fall into the world of Seuss and learn about the characters, the stories, and the man behind the magic.   

There is a contest to win some cool stuff on the Dr. Seuss Facebook page where they will be giving daily prizes away from February 20 - March 19.  Like their page to enter to win every day.  

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”  -- Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!