Experience the Magic
This week we celebrate International Children’s Book Day. The International Board on Books for Young People chose April 2nd to celebrate authors who helped inspire our youngest learners to read. This date was chosen because it was Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday. I personally would have chosen March 2nd for Dr. Seuss because he was the author that has always encouraged me to be creative, think outside the box, and read. Well. Dr. Seuss…and my mom. And I hope that together, we can inspire a new generation of avid readers.
This past week, I had the fabulous opportunity to go into my daughter’s 3rd grade classroom as the mystery reader to share with them a very special book… the book I wrote with my mother which was inspired by my daughter. This was the first real opportunity I have had to share Around the World Right Now with someone other than our family and close friends. While reading, the class was enthusiastic and excited. They were asking questions that had never even occurred to us while we were writing it and made me think. They were relating their own experiences to the pages in the book, telling me the places around the world that they have seen and want to see. They sat quietly and listened and were polite and gracious when it was over. They had traveled around the world with me and at that moment, something wonderful was happening.
In that moment, I was not only inspiring a new generation of readers, but maybe even a new generation of writers. More people to help us take the words off the page and into our imaginations, helping us travel to new places. It all begins with reading, which brings us back to here and now. This International Children’s Book day, curl up and read for yourself, for your children, for your students, or for your friends.
What will you be reading?
Bryony Sheppard, majored in theater education at Emerson College and is currently studying for her master’s degree in educational psychology. She is a preschool teacher near Princeton, NJ and spends much of her time coming up with new fun and exciting ways to entertain and educate. When she isn’t studying or writing lesson plans, she loves spending time with her husband and two beautiful children.