G.H.S. News
"Read across america" sweeps into ghs
Reporter Celeste Barber
On Saturday, March 2, National Read Across America Day 2019 swept the nation off their phones.
A study by mobileinsurance.com has revealed that "the average person spends 90 mins a day on their phone.” Read Across America is an annual event meant to replace this screen time with page time.
The whole idea for a literacy-based movement started in 1997. An organization known as the National Education Association (NEA) "pushed for a special day to celebrate reading throughout the United States. This idea proved to be a popular one so it was not long before the first Read Across America Day was held on March 2, 1998,” according to the "holiday's" offical entry on Timeanddate.com.
The reason it is held on March 2 is because “this nationwide observance coincides with the birthday of Dr Seuss (Geisel), an American writer best known writing children’s books. Some of his books include Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, and The Cat in the Hat.”
A timeanddate.com article describes the holiday’s “purpose was to promote reading, particularly for children and young adults.”
During the day, “many schools, libraries, and community centers across the United States participate in the day by bringing people together to take part in reading books. Various reading activities and events are held across the country on this day. For example, some students take part in a Read Across America channel designed to showcase student and educator videos around the country. Others make reading pledges, organize book fairs, or read aloud to groups of people.”
Our very own Gloucester High School participated in the event by challenging the students to read one book a month. Considering the simplicity of the challenge, many people participated. The school did a raffle for whoever completed the task and whoever won the raffle received a five dollar Chick-Fil-A card. The two winners were coincidentally two junior lacrosse players--myself, Celeste Barber and Brenden Brownley.
Although Brownley didn’t enter the contest of his own free-will, his friend suggested that he enter. He entered the contest with Christie Golden’s novel World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King. He said he was interested in the book because of “the story behind it.” Brownley also stated that his favorite book genre is fantasy.
Similar to Brownley, I also entered the contest because my friend was running the booth and told me I should enter. I entered the contest with what is now one of my favorite books, Angie Thomas’ novel The Hate U Give. The book “follows events in the life of a 16-year-old black girl, Starr Carter, who is drawn to activism after she witnesses the police shooting of a childhood friend.” Unlike Brownley, my favorite genre is Young Adult Fiction, some of my favorite books include Natasha Preston’s The Cellar and my all-time favorite novel April Henry’s Girl, Stolen.
Assistant principal Mrs. Simpson was behind the organization of getting Gloucester High to participate in the event. Simpson says she wanted to include GHS in Read Across America because they “wanted to inspire students to read more books”. She said over 200 hundred students originally entered the contest. Simpson’s favorite book is Pride and Prejudice. Her reasoning to this is because she has visited Bath, England which is where author Jane Austen lived for some time.
Simpson encourages students to read whenever the time gives, but her advice to students is “you have to find a topic that you like in order to get into a book”.
I also agree that you have to find a topic you like in order to get into a book because if you don’t like the topic you’re reading on then it’ll just feel like a mindless task and not something you enjoy. Reading allows you to escape your mind into another world and many student, like myself, rely on that. Junior Austin Kent favors Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; he says it is a good read and it’s intriguing. Freshman Maddison Pierson enjoys reading the Keys To The Kingdom series because it features an “easy to read plot”.
Gloucester High School is full of students who love to read. Each and every day students visit the library in search of their next fantasy adventure. Each month Mrs. Simpson receives a top ten list of books checked out in that month. Here are the Top Ten Books Checked Out In March:
- Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman
- Black Butler, Vol. 1 by Yana Toboso
- Kill All Happies by Rachel Cohn
- The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
- Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 1 by Sui Ishida
- Vampire Knight, Vol. 2 by Matsuri Hino
- Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama
- Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1 by Hiromu Arakawa
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
- Lucky in Love by Kasie West