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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Each year for the majority of my career I have had the opportunity to visit a school on Read Across America Day.

This celebration of reading marks the birthday of beloved author Dr. Seuss. Each year, guests come to the school and read books Seuss or otherwise to students.

Often there are fun costumes as readers or students dressed in costumes.

I remember reading books like “There’s A Wocket in My Pocket,” “Hop on Pop,” “Bartholomew and the Oobleck,” and “The Butter Battle Book” to my youngest sister. Seuss was fun to read, even if some of his made-up words could be hard to read.

The first Dr. Seuss book I ever remember owning was the “The Foot Book” and maybe “It’s a Great Day for Up!” which is one I really enjoyed.

I first heard Seuss’s story of the Sneetches, not from the book, but from my dad telling the story as we rode home one night.

My introduction to “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” came at a graduation I attended when one of the graduates read it.

Now that I am older, some of my favorite Seuss stories are “Horton Hears a Who” and “The Lorax” because of the important messages that the convey. I have the movie versions of each.

They are great reminders that “A person is a person no matter how small” and “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Theodor Seuss Geisel, who became known as Dr. Seuss, made reading fun and simple with “The Cat and the Hat” and his quirky graphics. I wonder if he had any idea when he was alive that school children would be reading his books and celebrating his birthday decades after his death.

Each year as I write the Read Across America articles, I find myself looking up Seuss titles, remembering his storiesand discovering new titles at seussville.com. One year, I went to the library to check out some of the titles I had never read

The Chilton-Clanton Public Library also has several Seuss titles for those who want to revisit his wacky and whimsical world.

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! Thank for the stories and fun!