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Home > Archive > Jul 12, 2007

Roadrunner Reading Tour a Big Hit
By Stephen Vincent
The Roadrunner Reading tour made three stops on July 3, visiting three elementary schools: Santa Clara, Arrowhead and Sunset. At Sunset Elementary, about 20 kids gathered on the library's reading steps to listen to Roadrunner shortstop Geron Sands read “Michael's Golden Rules.”
The students enjoyed having Sands, who is originally from the Bahamas, there to read to them, and the kids later peppered Sands with questions that centered on how old he is (24), how old he was when he started playing baseball (7), and where he lived in the Bahamas (Nassau), among others.
The Roadrunner Reading program concludes on July 17 with readings at Riverside Elementary at 10 a.m. and Bloomington Elementary at 11 a.m. The district's take-home summer reading program also wraps up later this month.
The Dixie Reads program, though, will keep going, shifting its focus toward events during the school year. For kids in the fourth through seventh grade, the start of the school year will mean the start of the search for the title of the mystery book. Clues to what the mystery book is will be given through a scavenger hunt and the Dixie Book phone book.
Once the identity of the mystery book is revealed, students will read the book and then receive coupons to attend the Staheli Corn Maze. Students will then find clues from the book that will help guide them through the corn maze.
The school district did this last year with “The Great Brain” books.
“The feedback we got from some of the parents was that they really enjoyed it,” said Sue Wilson, who heads up the Dixie Reads program, “because the kids were leading them through the maze.”
Other plans for the fall include the Pass It Forward book; some students will be given a copy of a book, which they read and then pass on to another student to read.
The Dixie Reads program has also invited local book clubs to read Lyman Hafen's “Far From Cactus Flat” and attend a presentation Hafen will give on the book on Oct. 3 at the district offices.
On Oct. 27, the St. George Book Festival will include sessions with Hafen and Bruce Hurst, the subject of Hafen's book, “Flood Street to Fenway.”
A listing of all the Dixie Reads events can be accessed on the district Web site, www.wash.k12.ut.us, by clicking on the Dixie Reads icon in the lower left-hand corner.

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