FernFolio

Last week I held end-of-year celebrations for the members of the Reading Hall of Fame, all 163 of them.  After the Hall of Fame closed for the year, on May 29th,  I spent the better part of a week checking a bin full of reading logs that students had submitted at the last minute, and taking photos of the last new members.
Though typing up the final lists of Reading Hall of Fame members never takes more than a couple of hours, double checking the lists and verifying the levels which students have achieved always takes several days.  Then there is making and delivery of invitation, the printing of certificates, each with the student’s name and reading level indicated, and the reserving of the school auditorium.
Arranging ice cream sundaes for both Hall of Famers and the numerous volunteers that help out is always a big undertaking.  Oh, buying bowls and napkins and spoons and sauces and sprinkles is easy enough, but trying to find space in the school’s freezers for ice cream for so many people is a daunting task.  So once again this year, I held three celebrations, one for Primaries, one for Juniors and the last for Intermediates, on three consecutive days.
Primary students filed into the auditorium on Monday afternoon, and, listened while I stood on my soapbox and talked about reading.  I then read them The Book Woman, by Heather Henson, in which a young boy discovers the magic and power of reading thanks to the persistence of the travelling librarian who, rain or shine, rides the long trail to his family’s farm every two weeks to bring them library books.  After certificates were formally presented to 72 Grade 1, 2 and 3 students, they, and the 10 Junior students who had volunteered to help out, and I, ate ice cream with chocolate and caramel sauce.
On the following afternoon, it was the turn of the Junior students, 70 of them, which is a new record for the Junior division.  Though the efforts and accomplishments of every reader are celebrated in the Library, it was particularly thrilling to present certificates to each of the students in the Junior LD class.  Once again, I talked about the importance of reading and urged students to climb into some books this summer.  At this celebration, I chose to read a story, by Ted Arnold, entitled Reading Can be Dangerous, out of Guys Write for Guys Read, edited by Jon Scieszka, in which Ted tells about the time when, engrossed in a James Bond novel, he accidentally backhanded the family cockatoo and decorated the entire kitchen with tomato sauce.
The Intermediate celebration was more low key.  At the suggestion of my principal, I created and laminated bookmarks for the Intermediate readers.  Rather than a formal presentation in the auditorium, I invited the 20-odd Intermediate Hall of Famers to the Library where they and I talked about books and ate dishes of ice cream.  As I have in the past, I was astonished by the ability of Grade 7 and 8s to consume food!
So the Get Caught Reading Program has ended for another year, with 126 book prize winners and a large green garbage bag worth of reading tickets, a bulletin board of smiling faces, a collection of nearly empty squeeze bottles of chocolate and caramel sauce, an absolutely wonderful collection of handmade reading logs of every shape and size, and the knowledge that, among them, these 163 students read over 17, 000 books this year.
FernFolio Editor