Contact: Maridith Geuder
The Cat in the Hat joins state Rep. Tyrone Ellis, Mississippi State women's basketball coach Sharon Fanning and university faculty and administrators for a Thursday [April 13] program focusing on children and reading.
More than 150 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders will be at the Colvard Union for the first children's reading conference coordinated by the MSU curriculum and instruction department.
School districts sending students include Montgomery, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties, along with Starkville and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
Ellis, of Starkville, will be the first speaker at 9 a.m., followed by Fanning at 10, both in the small auditorium. Other sessions take place in the ballroom and various meeting rooms.
"Our primary goal is to motivate children and get them excited about reading," said Nancy Verhoek-Miller. She and organizer Pamela Barber-Freeman, also of curriculum and instruction, expressed hope that the conference "will become an annual event."
Also on the program is school librarian and children's author Alice Faye Duncan of Memphis, Tenn., whose books include "Willie Jerome," "Miss Viola and Uncle Ed Lee" and "The National Civil Rights Museum Celebrates Everyday People."
Miller said guest readers will share their favorite stories in rooms decorated to reflect such themes as adventure, history, sports, and music. To also encourage writing, students will receive journals to record their thoughts about the day.
Among other MSU presenters: Devon Brenner, Lesia Crumpton-Young, Esther Egley, William H. Graves, Diane Greene, John M. Hendrick, John F. Marszalek, Douglas McConnell, Frank E. Saal, and James P. Wilcox.
For more information, telephone (662) 325-3747.