Entry bubble Read Across America Day

By: Joanne | March 02, 2010 | Category: Home and Family

Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat with text reading "Read Across America Day, an NEA Project"What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book?  I love The Cat in the Hat with its moss-covered three-handled family gredunza. I love to recite the “Tweetle Beetle Bottle Puddle Paddle Battle Muddle” in Fox in Socks just as fast as I can. The Lorax, The Sneeches, Green Eggs and Ham…I could go on and on.

Reading children’s books is a fun part of having kids, and today is Read Across America Day. Read Across America, sponsored by the National Education Association, is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss.

The research is clear: children who are read to, and who read for pleasure, are more successful in school than children who do not. Reading is a wonderful way to spend fun time with any child, and reading gives a child the gift of lifetime learning. So get in touch with your favorite children's books of the past and discover some new treasures with a child. Read to a kid today.

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Entry bubble Curl Up With A Good Book This Winter

By: Sam | December 19, 2007 | Category: Fun

I may be biased but many fabulous things have come out of Georgia.  Delicious food, R.E.M., Hank Aaron, the Varsity, Gone With the Wind…I could keep going.  But it wasn’t till I read this recent Washington Post article that I realized how many great authors are from the Peach State (this coming from a girl who took a year of GA history).

The article looks at six major American fiction writers and the ongoing efforts to preserve their homes and other landmarks.  These authors include such luminaries as Alice Walker, Flannery O’ Connor, and Carson McCullers.  After reading the article, I was really surprised at how many of their books I hadn’t read.  How could I’ve missed a book that summarizes my single gal woes in one simple phrase:  A Good Man is Hard to Find.

With this realization, I decided to put together a list of books that I wanted to read this winter.  I started my search at the Big Read blog.  The Big Read  is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.  It provides citizens across the country an opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities.  The books are some of the most iconic in literature, including one of my all time favorites, The Great Gatsby.

Of course a search of great books would not be complete without a stop at the Library of Congress.  The Center for the Book, along with this wonderful thread from the Library’s blog, gave me plenty of interesting selections for my list.  But I didn’t stop there.  Here are just a few more sites that I checked out for my ultimate winter reading list:

Before I head off to the library, I would love to get recommendations from y’all.  Some of my favorites are Beach Music by Pat Conroy and Personal History, the autobiography of Katharine Graham. 

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