Have you ever read Jack Ezra Keats’ picture book The Snowy Day? If so, you know it’s a sweet story of a young boy’s daytime adventures and nighttime dreams on a day full of snow. If not, you can read it today online as part of Read for the Record, http://www.wegivebooks.org/pf/rftr/index.html, a national literacy campaign sponsored by Jumpstart, Pearson Books and wegivebooks.org
For the record, I heard about it on the Today Show this morning when I tuned in for a preview of Bruce Springsteen’s HBO doc on making Darkness at the Edge of Town. From there, it was a quck cut to Patti LaBelle reading the book on the plaza, and Matt, Meredith and the gang explaining that this is the campaign’s fifth year to get kids and adults all reading the same book on the same day. Last year, 21 million people participated.
I thought I had a copy of The Snowy Day somewhere, and I still may, but I couldn’t find it. Nor could I find my other favorite snowy day tale, Brave Irene by William Steig.
But I did unearth my paperback copy of Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by new Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. I thought maybe it was a signed copy — I met him years ago at some book thing — only then I remembered it’s my copy of Carlos Fuentes’ The Death of Artemio Cruz that’s inscribed “To Nancy – in friendship.” Nice.
Did I mention that I’m nursing a cold/sinus thing and that I’m on drugs? I can’t seem to concentrate, but I did reread The Snowy Day online so I can be officially counted along with the students, teachers, librarians, etc. I also joined wegivebooks.org, which gives away books to kids for each selected book you read. Nice.
Now I think I’ll go lie down, maybe listen to a little Springsteen and continue my sick day.
On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever 