SEQUIM — Monday was a big-hat day for Judie Lawson.
In her roomful of highly animated first-graders, Lawson — that is Mrs. Lawson, a 25-year veteran of Helen Haller Elementary School — sauntered, head adorned with tall red and white headgear.
It was in honor of The Cat in the Hat, one of the most popular books by Theodor Geisel, who would have turned 105 on Monday.
Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, also wrote Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Hop on Pop and a trove of other beloved books, plus tales like I’m Not Going to Get Up Today! and You’re Only Old Once!
Every March, Dr. Seuss’ birthdate is celebrated as Read Across America day, and every year in Sequim, a herd of teenagers heads for Helen Haller’s read-in.
First thing Monday, they walked down Fir Street and burst into the classrooms, ready to read to and with grade-schoolers such as Isabella Gawley, 6, and Lesae Pfeffer, 7.
Sequim High School sophomore Amy McAndie, 15, sat right down with the two first-graders.
Together they reflected on Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham and the critically acclaimed One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.
“I love reading to little kids,” McAndie said as Isabella and Lesae gazed at her.
“This is fabulous for both” teens and younger readers, said Jennifer Van De Wege, who came over to Helen Haller with her first-period biology class.
Megan Zumbuhl, a senior, orchestrated the arrival Monday morning of some 240 Sequim High students, assigning them to classrooms and providing maps, Van De Wege said.
Even in this day of DVDs, IMAX and iPods, children still bloom amid the pages of a book, added Lawson. She’s reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, to her first-graders, and plans to show “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” the 1971 Gene Wilder movie, on video later this month.
She will encourage her students to compare and contrast the two.
“Kids’ imaginations are fantastic,” Lawson said, adding that her students have no trouble creating 3-D movies in their minds.
While much has been written about the benefits of reading to babies, toddlers and tweens, Lawson urges parents to share books with older kids.
“Reading with them at night is a good bonding time,” whatever your youngster’s age, she said.
“If you keep reading with teenagers, it keeps the family involved with each other.”
Dr. Seuss himself credited his mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, for his magician’s touch with words and rhymes.
At bedtime, she would soothe her children by chanting rhymes she would kept in her memory since girlhood.
And in the rhythm of Dr. Seuss’ verse, Read Across America has a slogan: “You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”
Most first-graders arrive in Lawson’s class with just the seeds of literacy.
She and volunteers such as the teens from Sequim High water them with their attention.
“To me, this is the most exciting grade,” Lawson said.
“You see the lights go on as they say, ‘I can read!'”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
