Tonight I saw the premier showing of the movie Hereafter on HBO, and while it’s kind-of a lame movie (Sorry, Clint! Loved the Westerns, though.), it did give me an idea. There is a scene in the movie where there is a book fair in London, and Derek Jacobi is reading from Little Dorrit, and it reminded me of how we’ve just had the lowest reading scores in our nation’s history from our school kids, and if I were famous, I’d volunteer to do readings at book fairs to try to get kids interested in reading.
But I’m not famous. So that made me think about how there are lots of famous people in the same city where I live (Hollywood), and maybe they could help! I’ll bet they’d love to do it if there was a plan! Well, how about this for starters:
Famous stars: actors, musicians, directors, news anchors, artists, etc., could do a program called: “Reading Under the Stars”, where they would show up and read from their favorite book for kids, and then they’d talk to them afterwards and encourage them to read (not like telling them to read, but rather, telling them how reading encouraged them to do what they do now). If they couldn’t make it in person, maybe they could make a film to show of them at least talking about their favorite book(s) from childhood, why they liked them, and how it affected their lives. (It would be called “Reading Under the Stars” because the stars would be up on stages or up on screens, and they would be talking about books, and doing readings from them.)
Hey, at least it’s an idea! We’ve got to do something to encourage kids to read! (I hated reading as a child, and that’s mostly because I was always encouraged to read boring classics at school! But give me a book on horror movies, and I’d read it in an afternoon.) And in our celebrity-obsessed culture, it seems to me that getting them to do it would be the best way: not a phony “encouragement” thing, but really a heartfelt talk about and reading from their favorite books from childhood (or the age-range at hand; maybe there could be a different star for each age-range). Have it be a really personal experience with kids’ idols they can’t get anywhere else! Then they could really get into it! And it could be anything, from comic books to science fiction to turgid romance novels: whatever! But especially children’s books: get them interested young, and you’ve got them for life!
So: Where the Wild Things Are, The Night Kitchen, Big Max, The Midnight Fox, Bunnicula; hey, even: Calvin & Hobbes! Anything kids will love! How about Star Wars fan fiction? There’s way more now than ever for kids to read! It doesn’t all have to be boring! (Actually, none of it should be boring: that’s the point! That’s what high school English class is for!)
In fact, maybe they could have a contest, where kids across the country who show up in person for some star’s (say Tom Cruise or Scarlett Johansson) reading get a ticket to enter with their essay about their favorite book and why they like it, and the winner gets to tour the latest movie set, while all the runners up get free tickets and autographed photos? Hey, it’s a start…
But it’s just an idea for a volunteer program. I think it’s a good one under the circumstances, so hopefully it could work. But a push from somewhere higher up could help get it started, so if you're in a position to make it happen, please do!
…Or else they could do a program called: “Idol Threats”, where kids’ idols threaten them to do well in school or else! (It would work especially well with Joe Pesci and Samuel L. Jackson!)
