Students in Valeita Williams' class were spellbound Friday by images of life as a Lorax facing truffula tree forest degradation and the greed of entrepreneur Once-ler.
Sunset Hill third-graders Sarah Hoppe, Amanda Dray and Christina Craig huddled around Free State High School senior Lee Davis for a literary tour through "The Lorax," a Dr. Seuss classic about corporate and consumer greed that leads to pollution and environmental devastation.
Free State High School seniors Jackie Dubois, left, and Laura Farley read Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" to students at Kennedy School. Free State students on Friday volunteered to read Dr. Seuss stories to elementary students as part of the Read Across America celebration.
"This is my favorite Dr. Seuss book ever," Davis said.
Davis joined about 60 other students from Free State for the fourth annual Read Across America celebration, which coincides with Theodor Geisel's (Dr. Seuss') birthday.
Free State students read Dr. Seuss to children at New York, Prairie Park, Kennedy and Sunset Hill schools. Related events were held at other Lawrence elementary schools.
The annual literacy event, sponsored by the National Education Assn., invites people to wake up their brain cells with read-a-thons, writing contests, skits, plays and other events in schools and libraries across the nation.
Phyllis Copt, an English teacher at Free State who organized the local tour of schools, said she set out to find a handful of student volunteers.
"Originally, we thought we'd have five or six kids. Then we had 20. Now, we've got 60," Copt said.
She said her committed volunteers took time to practice reading their "gandorious" selections.
They had to get a handle on the inspired silliness of Cat in the Hat, Sam-I-Am, Grinch, Horton and the rest of the characters in Seussville.
"Dr. Seuss is deceptively difficult," Copt said.
Marcia Hershiser, librarian at Sunset Hill, said Read Across America helped drive home the message that reading is a crucial building block of every child's life.
"It's a great idea of promoting literacy," she said. "It might do the older students good to remember where they came from."
Fourth-graders at New York School so appreciated efforts of guest readers they asked a group of Free State seniors, including Erin Pipkin, for an autograph.
"I read 'Yertle the Turtle,'" Pipkin said. "I read it when I was little and they really enjoyed it."
She said the Free State and New York students sat in a circle and played a game where each person whispered a phrase into the ear of a neighbor to determine how much of the message changed from start to finish.
"We started with 'Green Eggs and Ham.' It finished with 'Go Firebirds.'"
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