Parade of Book Characters: Simpson Elementary Holds Reading Celebration
By Julie Perine on April 26, 2013 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
Kaylee Reed left for school this morning looking as if she stepped right off the page of Barbara Parks’ “Junie B., First Grader, Aloha-ha-ha.”
Sporting goggles, flippers, a lei and a parrot head inner tube, Kaylee arrived at Simpson Elementary to join her schoolmates, also dressed in literary character attire. There was Harry Potter, Cinderella, Cat in the Hat and a host of other well-loved book personalities.
The occasion, said Carrie Hill, school librarian, is Reading Celebration Day, noted annually at the elementary school.
“We just have a great school of readers. Throughout the school year, we have a reading program and the students earn prizes and they just love to read,” she said. “This is just a culmination of it all. They pick a book they love and get to portray it so it’s kind of a reward – a fun thing to do near the end of the year.”
Throughout the day, community members - including retired teachers, area church members and friends and relatives of students – came in to read to classrooms. The featured author of this year’s Reading Celebration was Steven Kellogg, Hill said.
Students paraded through the school hallways so they could show off their creative costumes. Jenny Starkey-Reed, mother of Kaylee, said the event is a fun way to get kids excited about reading.
“Kaylee wanted to read more books to give her different ideas of characters she might want to dress like,” she said. “She decided to be Junie B. due to the fact that she thinks she is silly and funny - and Junie B. is in first grade, just like her.”
Click the link below to see a photo gallery featuring some of today's book characters. (Photos by Julie Perine.)
