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Hartford Reading Challenge Aims To Kindle Magic

City council chief challenges youngsters to read for the summer

Hartford Courant Editorial

June 25, 2013

Education is essential to getting Hartford youngsters out of poverty, and anything city officials can do to spur learning is to the good. So a tip of the hat to City Council President Shawn T. Wooden for his Summer Reading Challenge.

Mr. Wooden, in partnership with local educators, Mi Casa Family Service and Educational Center, and Rosen Publishing, has given out more than 7,000 books to every first- and second-grader in the city. The challenge is for rising third-graders to write about why summer reading is important to them and to draw a picture. The winner will receive a Kindle e-reader and become city council president for a day. (Please don't raise taxes!)

Sometimes one book, a really good book, can trigger a hunger for more books, which can lead to a lifetime reading habit. It's a beautiful, almost magical thing. And Hartford needs some of that magic.