Austin Davis Library Transformed To Seussville for Reading Across America Celebration

The Community Meeting Room of the was turned into a mini Seussville for a full hour on Monday, as families came together to honor one of the world’s most popular children’s authors of all time, Theodor Seuss Geisel – best known as Dr. Seuss – in a belated celebration of Read Across America Day.

Read Across America, which was formed by the National Education Association, is held every year on March 2, but the library had other events planned that day.

Odessa resident Sheila Scott stopped by Emily, 6, and Nathan, 4.

“We’ve been coming to the library for story time ever since she (Emily) was a baby and we just love all the events here. Both of them are big Dr. Seuss fans too," Scott said.  "We’ve read “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket” thousands of times and Nathan just loves “Fox in Socks."

Beverly Hladky, branch supervisor and senior librarian, and volunteer Angela Fernandez, kept the children busy.

Hladky in fact, created her own homemade “oobleck," a gummy, lumpy spearmint green colored substance she created from cornstarch, water, and green dye.

“You can actually walk across it and it doesn’t sink,” she told the group.

The children were eager to participate when Hladky asked for volunteers to act out the characters from “Bartholomew and the Oobleck." 

The children also played a dice game with bearing images of “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” and tossed miniature cat figurines into plastic hats in honor of “The Cat and the Hat."

The kids – and some parents! – formed a circle for a game of pass the egg (a la hot potato) which had them giggling to the tune of “Ring Around the Rosie” followed by an arts & crafts project of creating “Horton Hears A Who” ear headbands made from strips of brightly colored construction paper.

Green eggs (minus the ham!) was served as was two cakes – one round vanilla and one rectangular chocolate – courtesy of The Friends of the Austin Davis Library, a group who financially supports children’s programs and special events like this throughout the year.

Before departing, each child left with “Cat in the Hat” stickers and bookmarks, and Seuss-themed activity sheets  including ‘Help The Cat in the Hat Get to His Birthday Cake’ (maze), ‘Connect the Dots to Horton’, ‘Oh, the Birds You Can Count’ (counting game), ‘The Cat’s Word Find’ (word search), and more, from www.Seussville.com.

“Seeing all these children – their energy and enthusiasm – makes me appreciate being a kid," said Angela Fernandez, 17, a library volunteer and junior at Steinbrenner High School.  "And of course, it always feels good to give back to the community in some way."

Roberta Maier, also from Odessa, brought her two children, John Robert, 8 and Kaitlin, 6, who both attend Hammond Elementary School.

“We love the special events they hold here. After school, they are always so eager to come straight here and use the computers," Maier said. "Even though we have a computer at home, the ones here have age-specific education games and lessons that are tailored to each of their grade levels."