Fri, 3 August 2007
As a high school English teacher, I am always amazed at how few students I deal with on a day-by-day basis that actually READ outside of school. Maybe that's why this press release caught my eye. FIRST BOOK, a literacy organization that provides books to kids in need, recently had an online poll to determine which book or series got adults "hooked" on reading. The most popular result? NANCY DREW. I was more of a Hardy Boys man myself, but Carolyn Keene (a pseudonym for several authors over the years) certain deserves props for introducing generations to the wonderful world of reading. (I wonder how many people read the controversial Clue In The Clock? Tsk tsk tsk... so many swears...) To quote from the press release, "research shows that the single strongest indicator of a child's future reading ability is the number of age-appropriate books in the home. Yet access to books is almost non-existent for children living in poverty. A recent study found that in middle-income families there is an average of 13 books for every child, compared to just 1 book for every 300 children in low- income neighborhoods. First Book addresses this crisis at its root by providing new books directly to children in need through community- based programs already serving their families." Towards these ends, the program gave away 50,000 new books to the state of Oklahoma (winner of an online vote). OK, that's all well and good, but what does this have to do with THE OFFICE? The FIRST BOOK site interviewed a handful of celebrities and asked them what was the first book that "hooked" them. One of the celebs? Our very own John Krasinski. Says John: "There were so many great books I read growing up. I was always a HUGE fan of all things Roald Dahl. Every book from James and the Giant Peach to The BFG to The Witches, nobody wrote more imaginative stories for kids. These worlds he created had the nonsensical appeal of Dr. Seuss, while at the same time, the characters were all written with wonderful complexities and enormous heart. It was a feast for any imagination! And with so many great books, short stories and poems to choose from, you could go on an adventure any day of the week!" As for me, I remember reading the NARNIA and the OZ books when I was in first or second grade... I dug Encyclopedia Brown, Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and lots of other great stuff. The lesson here? If there's a kid in your life, do them a favor and buy them a book! They just might grow up to be OFFICE fans.
Category:general
-- posted at: 7:01pm EDT
Comments[12]
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Melonie, that is awesome! i\'m leaning towards a properties emphasis and am in the midst of an incredible internship. theatre and opera are other mediums that tend to get passed up in this day and age. it\'s good to see more tech people out there! i love seeing all the HP readers milling about as well. one of the carpenters i work with is reading deathly hallows, and seeing this huge macho dude carrying HP7 with him on breaks and lunch gives me the giggles. i\'m also a huge jerry spinelli and louis sachar fan, and have been since i was a kid. the wayside school books are still some of my favorites
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I was going to mention this in my last post and obviously forgot. I got completely hooked on The Series of Unfortunate Events books just before the 13th came out. They\'re hilarious! One of my favorite quotes is as follows: \"Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it might be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it.\" Or this one: \"Like this book, the dictionary shows you that the word \'nervous\' means \'worried about something\'--you might feel nervous, for instance, if you were served prune ice cream for dessert, because you would be worried that it would taste awful--whereas the word \'anxious\' means \'troubled by disturbing suspense,\' which you might feel if you were served a live alligator for dessert, because you would be troubled by the disturbing suspense about whether you would eat your dessert or it would eat you.\" Aimee, I couldn\'t agree more. All you Office fans out there, go to the Theatre! Check out an Opera sometime. They\'re not always boring. Remember that before t.v. we had the stage.
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it\'s lovely to see so many HP fans! i finished reading the Deathly Hallows last weekend. LOVED it. This news story gives me warm fuzzies. Not nearly enough people read nowadays, and all of my friends who don\'t merely thing i\'m a gigantic nerd for spending so much free time reading. i\'ve been a reader since i was little, and i can\'t imagine not being one. The Boxcar Children was one of my favorite series as a kid, along with Shel Silverstein. ah, books, they are awesome.
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Aimee, I just went to your blog page and read that you\\\'re a theatre tech major. Awesome! I make costumes for an opera company. (Incidentally, I\\\'m VERY happy you\\\'re becoming a Sondheim fan. I adore Sondheim.) I am so glad that books like Harry Potter are getting people to read again. I went on vacation the week after Book 7 came out and it was so great to look down at the swimming pool and see people filling the beach chairs and reading Deathly Hallows, or in the elevator, ha ha! This news story prompted me to scrounge through the bookshelves in my parents\\\' basement to find all my first favorite books. Ah the memories!
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Thanks for posting this story, Matt. I am a voracious reader and am always interested in anything about how to get kids reading more. And it\'s good to hear that John Krasinski has good taste in kids\' books. I loved all the Roald Dahl books too, especially James and the Giant Peach, which was the first chapter book I read to my kids. Melonie -- I loved the Deathly Hallows! Did you? We picked up our copy at midnight when it came out and I stayed up the whole following night to finish it...
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I grew up in a house where everyone was constantly reading so I developed a love for reading at a very early age. I think my first favorite book was either Where the Wild Things are or The Phantom Tollbooth. I didn\'t even understand most of The Phantom Tollbooth and I still loved it. :) I have many cousins who are not interested in reading in general, so I\'m constantly coming up with evil schemes to get them interested in a book so they\'ll read it. It usually works . . . Incidentally, Jonathan, (and you probably already know this) one of the two main Harry Potter fan sites donates to First Book every now and then. Awesome. (P.S. Did you love Deathly Hallows?)
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