A kickoff assembly with Jeff Nathan, author of “There’s a Bear in My Shoe” and “Calling All Animals: The First Book of Punoetry,” set the stage for additional reading during Shore Road’s annual Pick a Reading Partner program on Oct. 13. The theme of this year’s program is “The Kingdom of Kindness,” matching the importance of reading to character education principles that emphasize the importance of being kind to one another. 

PARP is a New York State PTA Program, which encourages parents, staff and community to collaborate in the building of a reading partnership between home and school and to motivate students to love reading. 

In addition to learning about Nathan’s writing process and listening to his humorous poetry, students participated in a daily book swap, trivia question research, spirit activities and the sharing of pocket poems with peers. In addition, students set out to make new friends, create drawings about an act of kindness they experienced, donated books to the Book Fairies organization and performed their own act of kindness toward others. 

“Reading does not end with PARP,” Principal Patrice Matthews told the students. “Reading and writing is a part of your lives.”