On March 5, we celebrated a huge milestone: the five-millionth book given away since Page Ahead’s founding in 1990!
We marked the occasion at Rising Star Elementary in Seattle, with an all-school assembly where the pre-school students took home their February Story Leaders title, Jabari Tries by Gaia Cornwall. The book has a special bookplate identifying it as Page Ahead’s five millionth book and will go home with each of the students to help them get ready for Kindergarten. All students at Rising Star Elementary were able to select a free book to keep forever as part of the celebration.
The program kicked off with a read-aloud of Buffalo Fluffalo written by Bess Kalb and illustrated by Erin Kraan by Mayor Katie Wilson. A Washington state children’s choice award winner, Buffalo Fluffalo was a crowd favorite and the students loved seeing the Mayor. Student performances were next: the after-school theater group performed a specially written play about Page Ahead’s history and taught the school what five million books really looks like, and the school choir performed a great song from “XXXXXX” by “XXXXX”.
With big shoes to follow, local author/illustrators Jessixa Bagley and Sanae Ishida led the students in a creative character building session. Taking audience suggestions, they created a wonder character and named it “Moose” for our dear friend the Mariner Moose who showed up at the end of their performance. As the Moose hyped up the crowd, the pre-K students got onto the stage to accept the five millionth book.
It was a splendid and joyous afternoon filled with a love for books and reading. Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate!
