.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - This month Weledeh Catholic school will participate in a national attempt to set a Guinness world record.

The record, a mouthful - "most children reading with an adult, multiple locations" - will attempt to best the previous record of 78,791, which was set in the U.S. The record attempt will consist of groups - with at least one adult for every 35 children - spread across the country and monitored.

Weledeh students, from left, Curtis Vital, Gaige Forrester, Karman Bud and Brianna Nitsiza gather to read Robert Munsch books. The entire school will participate in January's world record attempt for the most children reading with an adult. - Lauren McKeon/NNSL photo

The event is being organized through the ABC Canada Literacy Foundation and will coincide with Family Literacy Day, Jan. 27.

Each family or group participating must have the adult read from a list of Robert Munsch books - made up of five books, including Mortimer and Murmel, Murmel, Murmel - for a total of 30 minutes. Munsch, who has based his book Moira's Birthday on a girl he knew from Hay River, is the honorary chair of Family Literacy Day 2009 - and a much beloved Canadian author to boot.

Weledeh principal Merril Dean knows him as the author of books she used to read to her own children.

"I think my real favourite is probably Paper Bag Princess. The first time I read it as a woman, I thought 'finally,'" said Dean, joking the male character was characterized as a "wimp."

In the book, the princess defeats the dragon and rescues the whiny prince.

Dean's next favourites were Giant, in which God is a little girl, and From Far Away, which Munsch co-wrote with a young girl from Lebanon.

All of Munsch's books, however, are "such fun stories," said Dean.

"How does an adult come up with those? I never dragged things like that from my imagination," she laughed.

In addition to participating in the world record attempt, Weledeh has held plenty of events to encourage reading in children and families and will continue to hold more.

"The way you improve reading is to read," said Dean.

One event the school holds to great success is "literacy survivor night," which sets families on numerous literacy challenges in both English and the Dogrib language.

Students are also challenged to read more books over the summer than the principal.

"We try to make it a reading school," said Dean.

Munsch, who has visited various communities in the North, said it can be harder for remote communities to participate in literacy events.

"The problem in remote communities is that you don't have libraries or a bookstore or anything really," he said, adding Scholastic Canada orders can be a boon.

"Yellowknife is the New York of the area," he joked.

Munsch added those who don't have access to a library or a bookstore can go virtual if they have Internet access.

"Every author in the world has a website," he said. "If you can go online, you can access those and get kids familiar with authors."

A handful of Munsch's books will be available free to download in their entirety for the world record event.