From: Lbhcove at aol.com <Lbhcove>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:28:56 EST

I don't give a damn for any excuse about NOT reading aloud to children. The NO-CHILD...act is preposterous. It has destroyed so many reading/literature programs -- let alone the destruction of millions of children's love for reading.
  Get this: Read aloud THE SNOWY DAY by Keats; follow it up with "Cynthia in the Snow" where snow is "Still white as milk or shirts./So beautiful it hurts." in Gwendolyn Brooks' BRONZEVILLE BOYS AND GIRLS.
  In minutes ... MINUTES ... children are exposed to a Caldecott Award winning gem and the work of a Pulitzer Prize Poet.
  Richer than a Big Whopper. Richer than "How long was the mouse's tail in
...DESPERAUX?" or "What do you think the poet really meant when he/she wrote that?"
  News for those who write these insane, inane questions: I don't even know what I really mean sometimes!
  Young teachers: Get with it. There is a lot to learn.
  And with every book you read aloud, find a poem to go with it.
  I believe we spend too much time TEACHING children to READ -- and NOT enough time TEACHING them to LOVE to read.
  GET the difference.
  Lee Bennett Hopkins
  AMERICA AT WAR (McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
_www.simonsays.com_ (http://www.simonsays.com/)



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Received on Wed 27 Feb 2008 09:28:56 AM CST