Get Caught Reading Month

One of my earliest memories is sitting with my Dad as he read me my nightly bedtime story. 

Dad may have enjoyed our nightly ritual even more than I did.  It was his big chance to indulge in theatrics.  During his daytime life, my Dad was a rather conservative, soft spoken even humble man.  But when it was bedtime story time he became something else all together.  He whispered, roared, created voices and even sang once in a while. 

It is probably safe to say that my love of reading is forever entwined with my love for my Dad.  So, I think it is exquisitely appropriate that May (the month of his birthday) is the month for the "Get Caught Reading Month" campaign.

Dad would have loved it!

This is the ninth annual campaign since The American Association of Publishers decreed May as "Get Caught Reading Month".

This year the Get Caught Reading website  offers a selection of pictures that show a celebrity (like Queen Latifa, Jenna Bush or The Miami Heat) reading. 

These images can be downloaded as a screen saver or ordered as posters.  Or you can use them to send an an ePostcard to a friend. 

One of the most interesting features of the website is the section dedicated to their literacy program.  The most fascinating piece is the Fact Sheet on The Importance of Reading to Young Children. Here are a few of the facts and figures!

Did you know that:

• When you read to a child that in a matter of seconds, thousands of cells in these children's growing brains respond?
• reading adds definition and complexity to the intricate circuitry of the brain that remain largely in place for the rest of these children's lives?
• Literacy later in life depends heavily on a child's environmental influences?
• Reading aloud to children is the single most important way for a child to develop literacy skills?
• Many pediatricians prescribe reading activities at the time of well-child visits?

Evidently all that reading had a part in determining by eventual vocation and avocation.  And here I thought that Dad read to me just for fun!

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