Friday, February 6, 2015

Read Across Kauai Literacy Events 2015



The Kauai Children’s Authors Guild in partnership with the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii will be holding their annual Read Across Kauai Literacy Day event on February 27th, 2015. However, because of the large number of children that will be read to this year, the event will be extended from February 15-April 15, to allow schools and libraries to schedule local authors to come visit their classrooms and reading groups.

To complement Read Across Kauai Day, a special storytelling event will also be held at the Storybook Theatre on Wednesday, February 25th at 10:30 am. This event will take place in the Peace Garden Amphitheatre and will feature local authors and storytellers. The event will also be filmed as an episode of the Russell the Rooster show. This event will cater to younger toddler and preschool-age audiences that won’t be able to attend school performances.

This year’s theme for Read Across Kauai Day is environmental literacy. Many of the local authors have written books about Hawaiian wildlife and its importance to us here on Kauai. In fact, author Susan Dierker’s new book, Albatross of Kauai, the Story of Kaloakulua, teaches children about Kauai’s albatross from hatchling to fledgling. Thanks to generous donation from the Betlach Family Foundation, hundreds of children on Kauai will be receiving a copy of this book, during the Read Across Kauai Day event.



Last year, members of the Kauai Children’s Authors Guild made appearances in schools to promote the importance of literacy and read to more than 400 hundred children across the Garden Island. This year, the guild expects the numbers to double.

The Read Across Kauai Day event was modeled after the national event, Read Across America Day, but guild members recognized that Kauai is uniquely special place so they designed Read Across Kauai Day to be a little more personal, a little more “Kauai Style”. The event provides an opportunity for children to interact with local authors and establish a personal connections with the books that are read to them. The authors also share their experiences about writing and publishing books in order to inspire children to become better writers. The guild members hope to reinforce the importance of reading by encouraging creativity through writing and artistic expression.

One of the most valuable components of the project is the distribution of an information sheet that is sent home to parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children. Since Read Across Kauai Day was devoted to literacy, guild members wanted to make sure that this significant information be disseminated to the children’s parents.

For more information about Read Across Kauai Day, visit the page dedicated to Read Across Kauai Day here on our blog or

To participate in the Storybook Theatre event, please call for reservations (808)335-0712, office@storybook.org.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Albatross of Kauai Just Released!


Thanks to the Cornell Ornithology Lab's live bird cams, in 2014 for the first time ever, almost 2 million people from more than 195 countries were able to watch a Laysan albatross grow up from hatch to fledge. Now, by the author of Knuckles, The Hound of Hanalei, the new illustrated children's book, Albatross Of Kaua'i, The Story Of Kaloakulua, tells the story. As always, author Susan Dierker tells the story in English, but includes Hawaiian words. A 48 minute dvd of live footage from the 'Tross cam is also included so that children can learn more about the Albatross of Kauai.

Thanks to a generous donation from the Betlach Family Foundation, 1000 of these books will given to the children of Hawaii in 2015. Albatross of Kauai will be read to hundreds of children during the annual Read Across Kauai Day event, and schools and libraries will be receiving copies. In fact the theme for this year's event is environmental literacy, and this book will help educated children about the Laysan Albatross found on Kauai.

For more information about the book or the author, please visit the Albatross of Kauai website.


Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Read Across Kauai Day 2015

If you would like to sponsor a class, or books for kids, please visit the Storybook Theatre website, and click on the donate button. Make sure to include Read Across Kauai as the purpose for your donation.