Yokota Air Base, Japan --
“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a
book and read to a child,” said Dr. Seuss.
Each year America celebrates Dr. Seuss’ birthday with
National Read Across America Day. It encourages people to bring reading into
the lives of children in an enjoyable way.
Yokota’s West Elementary School celebrated the day with
various activities designed to encourage and show the enjoyment in reading to
children.
The first event was the Seuss Café; it included snacks for
kids while volunteers came to read with them.
“They didn’t even know they were having fun reading,” said Sheryl
Woodruff, Yokota West Elementary School reading specialist. “It was a
priceless moment.”
The school also organized a Dr. Seuss Family Night event. There
were various activates for families including: oobleck (slime) making, face
painting, cake decorating, green eggs and ham, photo booth and more.
“The main goal of the day was to get kids to see reading as
fun and not a chore,” said Woodruff.
Over thirty volunteers from the 374th Logistics and
Reediness Squadron and the Yokota ROTC helped throughout the evening event.
National Read Across America Day was created by the National
Education Association, and has many celebrity readers over the years including former
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and actor LaVar Burton.
The NEA chose to celebrate the holiday on Dr. Seuss’
birthday because of his creative accomplishments in the children’s book genre.
In 1943 during World War II, Dr. Seuss joined the United
States Army Air Forces as a Captain. He was the first commander of the
Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit in Hollywood, Calif.,
later known as Combat Camera.
After WWII, Dr. Seuss returned to writing children’s books.
It was during this time that he wrote many of his fan’s favorites including; “Horton
Hears A Who”, “The Cat in the Hat”, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” and “Green
Eggs and Hams.”
“The Cat in the Hat” was written somewhat as a challenge
after a report on illiteracy among school children came out in 1954. The study
concluded that part of the problem was children found the books they were
reading boring.
Dr. Seuss was challenged to write a book using 250 of the
most important words that first graders should know in a way that would be hard
for young readers to put down. He used 225 of the words given to him in “The Cat
in the Hat.”
According to the NEA Dr. Seuss wanted children to realize
the joy of reading; because of this and his many accomplishments in the
children’s book genre, his birthday was chosen for the National Read Across
America 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.