March second (or thereabouts, if the second happens to fall on a weekend) is a banner day in the life of most primary school students, especially those between Kindergarten and fourth grade. Certainly it has become one of the busiest days for children's authors! It marks the birth of Theodore Geisel, who of course the world knows better as Dr. Seuss.

In recent years, however, it has also kicked off a week of literacy programming collectively called Read Across America. Each year we participate in school visits, birthday celebrations, pajama parties, celebrity readings...you name it. Truly this is one of the most gratifying aspects of being an author, having a solid occasion to promote literacy in terms more accessible to young minds than the concepts generally promoted.

Truly, Dr. Seuss represents the fun aspect of literacy, while promoting not only the educational benefits but morality as well! Consider The Sneetches, a book clearly depicting humankind's folly - and inhumanity - to one another by poking fun at the concept of prejudice. More specifically, he was bemoaning the hatred of The Holocaust. His point was simple: No one is better than anyone else!

What is it that we remember about this book? It made us laugh. It made us laugh! We enjoyed reading it, it made us laugh, and we wanted to read it again. And again! That we learned to be better readers and indeed better people from his books was merely a side benefit. This is the magic of Dr. Seuss. He could address candidly and with humor prejudice, the environment (The Lorax), aging (You're Only Old Once!), and any other topic he felt needed addressing! Other times, Geisel led the way to what in anyone else's hands might have seemed a more mundane path: Rhyming, counting, and literacy fundamentals such as the alphabet. Sometimes, of course, it was as simple as don't forget to imaginate. Dr. Seuss was able to live what so many of us are at best merely able to echo: Literacy is the key to freedom, communication, and survival.

This year's experience included our having been part of the Dr. Seuss/Read Across America celebration in Tinton Falls, NJ. We sang songs, mostly from ONE SIZE FITS ALL (since so many of these songs come from our books it seemed natural), and showed the children of the Mahala S. Atchison School some of Kim's original art - from Africa Calling, as well as from Rock A Bye Baby, our next Charlesbridge title, and The Cool Black Pool, which was co-written by Jim Babjak. This was very fitting as Jim appeared with us at the school as he sometimes does. For those of you who are on the unawares, this story is about different colored crayons filling up the world and learning to get along. We'd like to think Dr. Seuss would have been proud. As an aside, we do not yet have a date of publication for this title. Somehow that is fitting, underscored by another lesson Geisel shared with the world: Patience is a virtue. He was rejected by almost thirty publishers before finding one who would take his first book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street!

We were not the only ones helping the Atchison School celebrate. The Mayor was there. An assemblyman was there. An assemblywoman was there. The Chief of Police was there. A firefighter was there. A local doctor was there. Why? To share their favorite nursery rhymes with the students. To honor Dr. Seuss by sharing their love for literacy with a new generation. To share their commitment to the community, and to the future. To share, to share, to share!

That's not all! They had a teacher dressed up in costume and makeup as The Cat in the Hat. The music teacher led each of the three assemblies - two hundred and fifty students per assembly, mind you - in a rousing rendition of "Dr. Seuss We Love You". They had hats! They had certificates! They had proclamations! They had fun! They also had the press.

Literacy, education, our future, and our very freedom is at stake. Just as we know our schools can not serve as dumping grounds for our children, just as surely as we know parental involvement is critical to the well being of a child's education, we also know that the community itself must play a part in taking responsibility for the welfare of those who will soon be taking care of it! Just as no one is an island, we are also not a myriad of little islands floating in the sea of ignorance, never touching. We must be one cohesive unit, keeping our individuality which makes each of us so precious as we learn to grow together, to help one another, to benefit from each other's experience and involvement.

When you take a look at all of his books together, this is what Dr. Seuss said, and continues to say, to us.