Read Across Kauai Day

The Kauai Children’s Authors Guild in partnership with the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii will be holding their annual Read Across Kauai Literacy Day event on February 27th, 2015. However, because of the large number of children that will be read to this year, the event will be extended from February 15-April 15^, to allow schools and libraries to schedule local authors to come visit their classrooms and reading groups.

To complement Read Across Kauai Day, a special storytelling event will also be held at the Storybook Theatre on Wednesday, February 25^th at 10:30 am. This event will take place in the Peace Garden Amphitheatre and will feature local authors and storytellers. The event will also be filmed as an episode of the Russell the Rooster show. This event will cater to younger toddler and preschool-age audiences that won’t be able to attend school performances.

This year’s theme for Read Across Kauai Day is environmental literacy. Many of the local authors have written books about Hawaiian wildlife and its importance to us here on Kauai. In fact, author Susan Dierker’s new book, Albatross of Kauai, the Story of Kaloakulua, teaches children about Kauai’s albatross from hatchling to fledgling. Thanks to generous donation from the Betlach Family Foundation, hundreds of children on Kauai will be receiving a copy of this book, during the Read Across Kauai Day event.

Last year, members of the Kauai Children’s Authors Guild made appearances in schools to promote the importance of literacy and read to more than 400 hundred children across the Garden Island. This year, the guild expects the numbers to double.

The Read Across Kauai Day event was modeled after the national event, Read Across America Day, but guild members recognized that Kauai is uniquely special place so they designed Read Across Kauai Day to be a little more personal, a little more “Kauai Style”. The event provides an opportunity for children to interact with local authors and establish a personal connections with the books that are read to them. The authors also share their experiences about writing and publishing books in order to inspire children to become better writers. The guild members hope to reinforce the importance of reading by encouraging creativity through writing and artistic expression.

One of the most valuable components of the project is the distribution of an information sheet that is sent home to parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children. Since Read Across Kauai Day was devoted to literacy, guild members wanted to make sure that this significant information be disseminated to the children’s parents.

For more information about Read Across Kauai Day, visit Kauaichildrensauthors.blogspot.com or

www.storybook.org /literacy-programs-events/

To participate in the Storybook Theatre event, please call for reservations (808)335-0712, office@storybook.org.