Choosing the stories each week with the help of the fantastic school librarian, Teri Henderson, is more and more challenging as I try to think of what lessons I want to stress.
One week, drawing on a disturbing bullying incident my own grandson had encountered, I found books that spoke to this universal issue with humor and tact. Another week I read stories from places far away, locating them on the map relative to where we are. I was able to expend their awareness of reading as a way to travel far and wide, and picked up on one of our stories and was able to encourage them to read beyond books, and they shared their own nespaper stories. "I was in the paper once when I did the AIDS Walk with my grandpa!" exclaimed one student
The kids get excited when I enter the class - partly, I am sure, because it means regular school work stops. But their interest, enthusiasm, and attention is so heartwarming, and their increasing willingness to share their own ways of relating to what we have read together is so meaningful to me. They are open, genuine and vulnerable-they leave me groping for proper ways to respond.
Do I recommend getting involved in the Screen Actors Guild Foundation's BookPALS program? You bet! You will gain far more than you give. It is truly, the high point of my week.
Anita Rufus
KNews Talk Show Host
resides in Palm Desert