Share-A-Humorous-Book Event a Hilarious Success!
By Shirley Gilbert
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Ashley Pickett, grade 3, holds up Aliens in Underpants Save the World, the book she read from. She also did a poster depicting scenes from the book.
“Reading,” said Oliveira Principal and AAUW member Linda Anderson, “is the key to learning.”
And reading there was a plenty from children age seven to high school age at the December 10 Share-A-Humorous-Book event held in the Fremont Main Library from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. A full-house audience of 125 attended the event made up of children, parents, grandparents, teachers and AAUW Fremont Branch members.
Principal Anderson was MC of the festive holiday evening that highlighted the love that young people have for books. She was also the organizer of the event arranging with the principals and librarians of the 35 elementary, junior high and high schools in the Fremont Unified School District to send representatives to read books to the audience.
New Fremont Mayor Bill Harrison talked about his own love of books and particularly amusing books. “Now I’m reading a lot of staff reports,” said the Mayor, ” but I’m looking forward to relaxing during the holidays and reading a book.”
“I feel honored,” he continued, “to be part of this wonderful collaboration of AAUW Fremont Branch’s One Book, One Community read program and the Fremont Unified School District. It’s an inspiring collaboration.”
AAUW’s Genevieve Angelides with the library’s Sallie Pine. Sallie started off the read fest with a grin and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
Sallie Pine, the library’s Circulation Supervisor, started off the humorous reading with one of her favorite amusing children’s books: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. “This version,” said Sallie with a grin, “is from the wolf’s point of view.”
AAUW Fremont Branch Co-President Randy Fewel shared the history of the One Book, One Community read program with the audience and gave some information on the benefits of AAUW Fremont Branch membership for those non-members in the audience.
There were 35 readers in all — 25 from Fremont elementary schools and 10 from junior and high schools. Represented were: Ardenwood, Mission Valley, Oliveira, Glenmoor, Mattos, Millard, Hirsch, Harvey Green, Blacow, Gomes, Maloney, Thornton and Hopkins Junior High Schools, Washington and Mission San Jose High Schools.
Listening to the students was an inspiring experience as one after another feelingly read from the books that made them laugh from childhood to young adulthood. Many of the high school students, in fact, shared books that had delighted them when they were little and that they read today to their younger siblings.
Although the idea was to give a short excerpt from a book they loved for one minute, a few of the children read the entire book impressing the audience with the reader’s dedication. Others read a small part of the book and challenged the audience to discover what happens next. One reader, Shayna Kothari of Hopkins Junior High, sported angel wings since one of the characters in her book Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports was named Angel. A few even created pictures, diagrams and puppets to help describe the book they enjoyed.
Principal Anderson and Dr, James Morris, FUSD Superintendent are here with the students from Washington High School who read funny books they loved as children.
After each student read their book they gave it to the SAVE (Safe Alternatives to Violent Environments)representative at the event as a donation for the children of parents who come to SAVE for help. About 60 books were donated.
Some of the more popular books were: Diary of a Wimpy Kid and several Dr. Seuss books (Hop on Pop, Oh The Places You’ll Go and The Cat in the Hat). However what was striking was the variety of the books that were read — there were very few repeats. Some of the books had a delightful Christmas theme (The Mouse’s Christmas and It’s Christmas David). And Laura Chen, of Mission San Jose High School, read excerpts from a series of essays about food entitled Eat, Memory that resulted in many smiles and laughs.
FUSD Superintendent Dr. James Morris praised the idea, intent and work that went into the program. “Thank you AAUW and the Fremont Unified School District — especially Linda — for putting this excellent event on.”
At the end of the evening, Principal Anderson was gifted with a beautiful bouquet of flowers along with many thanks for leading an event with Lots of Laughter, this year’s theme of AAUW Fremont Branch’s One Book, One Community read program.
She passed on kudos to the library and to those in AAUW Fremont Branch who helped plan and set up the giggle-filled event and to AAUW Fremont Branch for spotlighting reading for children — something she’s very passionate about.
Principal Anderson left us with a thought-provoking statistic: the average child laughs 400 times a day while the average adult laughs only 15 times a day. “What,” asked Ms. Anderson, “happened to the 385 laughs we adults don’t enjoy each day?”
Many of those adult laughs were on display at the library that night.
Visit the Share-a-Book Album to see lots more pictures.
Click Here for a full list of the books that young people find very humorous.