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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Multimedia Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend February 25, 2007 Happy early birthday, Dr. Seuss By Bill Varble Mail Tribune I am reading to a roomful of 10-year-olds from a book I don't know. Jess, the boy in the story, goes into a field where there's a cow, and the cow moos, and this is rendered as dialog, like "Mooooo." I attempt to moo and produce a sort of nasal bellow. I sneak a glance at my audience. Nobody's cracking up. That's good, I think. They say kids don't read anymore. These kids seem to. I'm in Sarah Major's fifth-grade class at Jackson School in Medford on Friday morning. I'd gone to Washington by mistake, and there was no Major in Room 29, but we figured it out. When I got to the right place it was the wrong day. I was supposed to read next Friday, March 2, Dr. Seuss's birthday. Advertisement Well, schools aren't my beat. Turns out the NEA started a reading program 10 years ago as a one-day celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday, and it grew into a literacy campaign aimed at "building a nation of readers." I'm all for reading, and all for Dr. Seuss. When Major asks me if I can come back next Friday and I say I can't, she decides to have me read a non-Seuss book on this non-birthday. As somebody goes to get the book I talk with the kids, about two dozen. One girl likes to read adventures. A boy reads mysteries. Another has read almost all the Harry Potter books. Kids have been reading Roald Dahl, and a little boy has been reading Steinbeck's "The Red Pony." "The Red Pony" is good Steinbeck, a coming-of-age book in four related stories full of learning and beauty and — there's a time when this is right for kids — the mystery of death. Jody loves a horse, and the horse dies, and vultures descend on it. Sometimes life is like that. You can't beat nature, but you can learn from it. I figured my job was to be some kind of emissary from the land of literacy, and instead I find myself in a roomful of readers, readers of good stuff, and I warm to my task. The book Major hands me to read is Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia," which I've never heard of, and I plunge with two-dozen 10-year-olds into the world of a kid named Jess. Jess' goal in life is to be the fastest runner at Lark Creek Elementary School. He is a fifth-grader, like these kids, and he seems to live on a farm and have a bunch of sisters. The book is from the 1970s, so these kids don't get references to, say, old TV shows. But the cool thing is they seem to be interested. Nobody is sleeping, throwing things, or giggling. I can even get some eye contact. When Major says time's up I have the end of the first chapter in my sights, and there's a twinge of regret as I realize I won't get to see what happens to Jess in the Big Race, which you know has got to be coming up. Later I google Paterson and get the story. She says characters walk into her imagination and take over. She wrote "Bridge to Terabithia" about her son, David, who later grew up and became a screenwriter and made a movie of — anybody? — "Bridge to Terabithia." David had a best friend named Lisa he met the first day of school when he was about 8. In the book the kid's friend is Leslie, and her family is thought to be a bit weird because they don't have a TV set, although their house is filled with books. Jess and Leslie become pals and create Terabithia, a secret kingdom in the woods where no enemy can mess with them. As in "The Red Pony," there is a tragedy, this not being Disneyland. And as in Steinbeck, a young person learns something important. It is, in the end, a Christian story without being Christianist. Although Paterson is a person of faith, she doesn't spread the Lord thickly over the whole story like some kind of metaphysical product placement. Rather, who she is comes through as an organic part of what she writes. "I think hope and grace are going to infuse my work — not that I put them in, but because I can't help having them there," she writes at Terabithia.com. Which makes her sound a bit like C.S. Lewis, which is a long way from Steinbeck, and from where I started this morning. But when you put a bunch of readers together, stuff happens. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] . Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Online Casino Reviews Fundraisers UK Homeowner Loans Casinos Canada Cord Blood Banking Entertainment Guide Texas Electric Choice Compare Electric rates in Texas Windermere Van Vleet Trunks, Footlocker Men's Clothing Debt Help