Hats off to national reading day

Michael Miller

Students in Timothy Peterson’s fifth-grade class at Harbor View

Elementary School are probably too old to read Dr. Seuss. So, when

librarian Ann Pokingham had to make a Seuss presentation Tuesday, she

focused on the man behind the scenes.

“This is probably one of the first books you learned to read,”

Pokingham told the class, holding up a copy of “Green Eggs and Ham.”

“In fact, you probably faked reading it, because you had memorized it

from hearing it so often.”

Pokingham went on to tell the kids a number of fun facts about

Seuss -- that his first book had been rejected by more than 20

publishers, and that he wrote “Eggs” when a friend wagered that he

couldn’t write a book with 50 words or less.

Read Across America day at Harbor View, held every year to

celebrate Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday, ended up honoring two

sides of the legendary author -- the genius who revolutionized the

art of wordplay and the hard-working guy.

“The kids love Dr. Seuss,” first-grade teacher Jo Ann Borg said.

“The way he bends nonsense words with real words is very creative.”

In 1998, the National Education Assn. created Read Across America

to honor the author of “The Cat in the Hat,” “Horton Hears a Who” and

other staples of children’s literature. Every year on March 2 --

Harbor View held the event a day early due to a fifth-grade field

trip -- schools around the country stage events to encourage reading

among young students.

This year, Harbor View principal Mellissia Christensen invited 23

community figures, including police officers, school board members

and elected officials, to read their favorite Seuss books to the

kids.

The day was festive in other ways as well. The student council

voted to hold Pajama Day, another annual tradition, simultaneously

with Read Across America, which left most of the classes looking like

bedtime readers. In addition, Christensen ordered “Cat in the Hat”

headwear, available on the Read Across America website, for each of

the guest readers.

“Had I known, I would have worn my pajamas,” Joe Quarles, vice

chancellor of human resources for the Coast Community College

District, told Borg’s first-grade class. Quarles, like other guests,

came fully dressed in a suit and tie, but wore the famous

red-and-white cat hat on top.

Some of the presenters tied Seuss into more worldly topics. School

board member David Brooks, who read Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll

Go!” to Joan Byrne’s kindergarten class, mentioned that his daughter

had gone to Venezuela to help build schools, and noted that learning

to read was an important step in traveling around the world.

Many kids at Harbor View are eager to make that step. The school

runs a reading comprehension program entitled Best Foot Forward, in

which kids read two or three books every night and then report on

them the next day to parent volunteers. Borg said that some students

have already completed more than 200 books for the current school

year.

“They like that independence of going to the library and picking

out their own books,” she said.

A number of Harbor View students expressed eclectic literary

tastes. Fifth-grader Gabby Smith said she had read Charles Dickens’

“Oliver Twist” recently and was currently on “Molly Moon’s Incredible

Book of Hypnotism” by George Byng. Her classmate Sarah Hostetler

listed Anna Sewell’s “Black Beauty” and Jane Austen’s “Pride and

Prejudice” as two of her favorites.

Peterson, their teacher, has kept the class reading novels all

year, most recently Seymour Reit’s “Guns for General Washington” and

Jean Craighead George’s “My Side of the Mountain.” Later, they will

tackle Wilson Rawls’ classic tear-jerker, “Where the Red Fern Grows.”

“I save it for the end of the year,” Peterson said, “so we can

have the big cry together.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@latimes.com.