A very important person had a birthday this week. Theodore Gueisel…one of the most well-known authors in the world. What? You don’t know him? Oh…wait, maybe you will recognize him by his pen name: Dr. Seuss. He chose a pen name in college because of some trouble he got into, but that’s another story. He was actually voted most unlikely to succeed.
Yet today, in honor of his birthday, we celebrate Read Across America as a way to recognize the important role Dr. Seuss had in children’s literature and to promote reading.
Schools across the country have all sorts of celebrations as a way to honor the man who changed the way emerging readers learn to read. In the 1960s, it became apparent that young people were struggling to learn to read. A publisher challenged him to write a book with less than 50 words and thus Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat came along. Both of these books were much more fun than the books children were traditionally reading and became bestsellers around the world.
Since the late 1970s, the first week of March has been proclaimed Read Across America week. Reading with young children encourages curiosity, develops vocabulary, and spurs imagination. And, hopefully, if you choose just the right books for your developing reader, you will inspire a lifelong love of reading.
While I am not a book critic, author, editor or publisher, I am a life long book lover and currently a Library teacher in a local elementary school. So I thought I would share some of the favorite read aloud that students seem to love the most. Hopefully, your family will enjoy them too!
Of course, anything by Dr. Seuss will entertain readers from toddler to adult and if you have not looked at his books for awhile, you might be amazed at how many titles there are, new and old. There are so many popular authors among teachers, but favorites include Eric Carle, Patricia Pollaco, Jan Brett, Chris Van Allsburg, Marc Brown, Mary Pope Osborne, and the list goes on forever.
Some of our favorite books to read aloud at school are:
- The Gingerbread Man Loose at School(Laura Murray)
- Skippyjon Jones Snow What (Judy Schachner)
- The Day the Crayons Quit (Drew Daywalt)
- Have You Filled a Bucket Today? (Carol McCloud)
- Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade (Melissa Sweet).
Finally, some new titles that are sure to become favorites:
- Dear Girl (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)
- Hello Light House (Sophie Blackall
- A Big Mooncake for Little Star (Grace Lin)
- The Rough Patch (Brian Lies).
Happy reading across America!
