Ready Readers

REDISCOVERING JOY

By Sheila Oliveri

With the holidays behind us, children might feel a bit disappointed returning to normal, everyday life. Ready Readers recommends reading “Saturday,” by author and illustrator Oge Mora, to help children rediscover that joy.

The story begins with an illustration of a 30-day calendar with the first 29 days carefully crossed out. The 30th day, a Saturday, has a gold star affixed with the words “Puppet Show!!!” A quick perusal of the illustration shows a colorful star on every Saturday of the month, along with a description of a special activity planned.

The first page of text reveals the value of Saturdays: Ava’s mother works the other six days, so it’s their special day together. Saturday activities include attending story time at the library, a trip to the salon for new hairdos, and a picnic in the park. This Saturday’s culminating event is extraordinarily exciting – a one-night-only puppet show.

Breathless with anticipation as Saturday begins, Ava and her mom soon find disappointment at each scheduled event. Mom reassures her daughter by saying, “Don’t worry … today will be special. Today will be splendid,” at each setback. However, even Mom is left crumpled and disheartened when they arrive at the theater and she realizes she left the tickets at home. Ava’s encouraging response reminds them both that every day is special and splendid, as long as they spend it together. Mora employs paint, marker and collage techniques to create her unique and inviting illustrations and adds in patterned paper and clippings from old books to make visual textures and patterns. Mora was a Caldecott Honor recipient for her first book called “Thank You, Omu!” and her popularity continues to increase with her latest offering, “All the People in the Red Brick Building.” More than 10,000 children in the St. Louis metro area will receive a copy of “Saturday” to enjoy at home through the Ready Readers Storytime program. ln

encouraging response reminds them both that every day is special and splendid, as long as they spend it together. to create her unique and inviting illustrations and adds in patterned paper and clippings from old books to make

Ready Readers shares the joy and power of literacy with our community’s most vulnerable children. Find opportunities to make a difference at readyreaders.org.

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