Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers: It's a Seuss-abration...and you're invited!

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers....the place to be when the need to read is SO great that you simply must indulge it or you just might explode with nervous energy....or something like that.

Today's post is going live late night simply because the event happened today and getting a bit of free time to truly share the experience was at a premium. First and foremost, the day belonged to both a world reknown literary figure's birthday AND a fantastic event that promotes reading for children of all ages. The later event mentioned is the National Education Association's READ ACROSS AMERICA.

From the site...

NEA's Read Across America 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.

NEA's Read Across America also provides NEA members, parents, caregivers, and children the resources and activities they need to keep reading on the calendar 365 days a year.

In cities and towns across the nation, teachers, teenagers, librarians, politicians, actors, athletes, parents, grandparents, and others develop NEA's Read Across America activities to bring reading excitement to children of all ages. Governors, mayors, and other elected officials recognize the role reading plays in their communities with proclamations and floor statements. Athletes and actors issue reading challenges to young readers. And teachers and principals seem to be more than happy to dye their hair green or be duct-taped to a wall if it boosts their students' reading.

A great event if I do say so myself and one I happily participate in if at all possible every year....and we also have the mention of the birthday we spoke of earlier. That's right! TODAY was Dr. Seuss's birthday and at the store I work in, I was appointed official event coordinator of the day. What does that entail? Well, besides the usual running of the store, it was to be the hosting of a story time for a group of about 40 kids or so from one of our local schools. Pretty big group compared to what we usually see...and it was up to me to make it shine. What? You didn't think I could leave it at just a simple story time now did you? ^_^
That just wouldn't be me...

First, they walked through a field of truffula trees....

...then after winding their way through the store and the scattered Seuss-filled facts and trivia posted here and there, they were met with a birthday party waiting for their arrival....

Looks inviting, right?

Let's take a closer look.....

Let's see, we have one fish two fish read fish GOLDFISH, Grinchy cupcakes, cookies, fruit punch AND a giant card for Dr. Seuss's birthday. (What's a birthday without a little cake and a card?)

Events proceeded with all the children lining up to sign the card (that big red thing in the right hand corner)...they loved it. Then they grabbed some carpet and we talked a bit about the man himself and what THEIR favorite Seuss books were. Answers ranged from HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS to THE LORAX to GREEN EGGS AND HAM...and on and on. They really knew their Seuss! Now it was time to proceed with story time...but what to read? After a rousing round of voting, the decision was made. Of the three books I offered up (which were THE CAT IN THE HAT, THE LORAX, and....), the title that won was something even their teachers hadn't heard of and was oh-so-appropriate for today's event. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Yep, that's right!

We travelled to Katroo with the Birthday Bird looking for the tall-est of all-est pets and celebrated the fact that "I am I"! They gazed at the pictures in wonder, shouted when prompted, and asked questions along the way; definitely a great group. Finally, we ended the story with a group sing along of Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss....and they dug into the treats. When all were hydrated and sugared up, they all picked out books and went on their merry ways to continue their adventures back in the classroom with the handouts, bookmarks, and Cat in the Hat doorknob hangers I sent with them (all of which and more can be found at the Seussville website...be sure to check it out!).

I couldn't have hoped for a better outcome.

It was great!

So....how did you and yours spend the day?

Hopefully you got a little reading in and even better if there was celebrating to go along with it.

I'm all ears and would LOVE to hear all about it.

The comments are open below...have at it my fellow readers!