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Taking a stirring stand for homegrown literacy

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Tom Jackson

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: November 13, 2009

Close readers of The Pasco Tribune are well aware that This Space rarely flinches from wrestling with the hot-button issues of the day, from ill-spent tax dollars to land-use planning to offshore prospecting for oil and natural gas to restoring the Flapjack Festival, to name a mere handful.

Today's effort, I'm certain, shall be remembered as being perfectly aligned with that well-earned reputation for boldness and cutting-edge analysis. Because today we choose, risking ridicule and second-guessing, to climb out on a limb of no return.

We reject fear. We reject trepidation. Confronted with an issue of utmost importance, urgency and controversy, we do not shrink away. Remember, This Space was an early and ardent supporter of the late, lamented, never-to-be-constructed tennis stadium, and it annually wages war against Big Education's insistence on school years that begin before Labor Day.

We do not cower.

So now does This Space argue on behalf of (Are you sitting down?) reading to children.

There. We said it. It cannot be unsaid. At the risk of ending a sentence with a preposition, children must be read to.

They must hear from us, in clear, rapturous voices, about what brown bears see and what hungry caterpillars eat, or the lengths to which rainbow fish and giving trees are willing to share.

They must see us moisten our thumbs. They must witness the turning of pages.

They must be regaled with the antics of a gigantic red dog; a thoughtful, bath-loving crocodile; gentle BFF hippos; and a mischievous chimp that is loved by a man in a big yellow Stetson.

As they grow older, even well after they have acquired reading abilities of their own, they still must hear books read by us. The activity is reassuring: Acquiring skills may enable independence, but it does not mandate it.

Introduce adolescents to Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Ray Bradbury; to Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Lucy Maud Montgomery. In this way, when in later years they recall a mysterious man inked head to toe in unsettling pictures, or a precocious orphan with flowing copper hair and outlandish schemes, they will hear the voice of an especially beloved grownup.

Having been disabused of the notion that all important doors open with the manipulation of a video game controller, your children's characters will be enhanced, and their teachers astonished, each an outcome that redounds to your enduring benefit, like doggedly feeding your 401(k), eating your vegetables and consolidating your errands.

We have an appointment

This is no empty gesture, an editorial command lacking a similar commitment from the issuing source. Indeed, Saturday afternoon, your bold and cutting-edge (but extremely humble) correspondent will perform in public the exact deed he has spent the last several minutes urging you to undertake.

Fashioning a holly-jolly tradition from the partnership it began last year with the east and central Pasco chapters of Toys for Tots, the Barnes & Noble outpost at the Shops at Wiregrass kicks off its second annual books-for-kids effort at noon.

The advertised centerpiece of the afternoon-long event is Arthur, the earnest and adventurous aardvark. His appearance will be punctuated by top-of-the-hour reading performances by, among others, Toys for Tots coordinator Bob Loring - his rendition of "The Story of Ferdinand/Ferdinand the Bull" is not to be missed - and, in the 2 p.m. slot, well, me.

Enter the 'Red Ranger'

Given the yuletide theme of the campaign, I'm going with (against the author's caution) "Red Ranger Came Calling," a classic tale of Christmas Eve by Berkeley Breathed ("Opus," "Bloom County") that pretty much puts to rest doubts about Santa Claus' existence.

Indeed, Breathed himself will be reading "Red Ranger" for a charity in Southern California this season - albeit with what he describes as "visual and audio backup."

"It's a long book for a picture book," Breathed warned. "It depends on the age of your group."

I assured him that, the lack of media support notwithstanding, whatever the median age turns out to be, Pasco County audiences tend to be especially sophisticated.

So, Saturday, 2 p.m., Barnes & Noble. You, your youngsters, the Red Ranger and me.

Synchronize watches. Let's get bold, courageous and aggressively literate together.

Tom Jackson hosts "The Jax Files Weekend" at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WGUL, 860 AM.

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