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Program Spotlight
All Aboard RIF's Reading Train!
The C.T. Plunkett Elementary School program in Adams, Mass., helps kids keep their reading on track! This program has been helping young readers for six years, and provides free books to more than 550 children. At a recent distribution, kids got so excited to choose a book, they moved with the speed of a locomotive! Read the full article below.
Plunkett School Gets Kids Excited About Reading
 ADAMS, Mass. — Jeremiah Fudge didn't have to think twice about what to grab off the book-laden tables in the C.T. Plunkett Elementary School library on Friday.
His book featured a leafy green cover with a fearsome looking dinosaur on the rampage.
"I always like to read about them, how they were excavated," said the second-grader. "Dinosaurs lived a long time ago and they ruled the world."
Not everyone made up their minds quite so easily; one youngster hemmed about a Nancy Drew mystery before he settled on a story about boxing. But each second- and fifth-grader walked away with a good book thanks to Reading Is Fundamental.
The school participates in the RIF program three times a year, said librarian Judy Bender, each time using a different theme. Some 530 pupils at the Commercial Street school were to receive a new book.
 Friday's theme was trains and "each child created a 'train car' as a way of generating excitement," said Bender.
The little paper cars were joined in a line that rolled along tracks across the walls of the library. Each color cluster was a grade level.
It worked, said Bender, "because the kids couldn't wait for RIF day."
RIF, which hands out 16 million free books a year to more than 4 million children, is just one of the programs at the school designed to encourage a love of reading, said Ellen Smachetti, the school's Title 1 director.
One project had parents cleaning out their bookshelves and donating outgrown books to Plunkett youngsters and another, "Curl Up With A Good Book," brought storytellers in for readings, cider, goodies and, of course, more books.
Up next is a fundraiser sponsored by Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Berkshire Crossings in Pittsfield. Make a purchase on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and mention Plunkett School — the school will receive a portion of the sale.
"We're very excited abut this," said Smachetti. "We hope to raise money for books and equipment for the library."
Meanwhile, the kids had completed their browsing, helped by their teachers and Title 1 teacher Deb Langner, who was appropriately sporting a train engineer's cap and scarf.
Seven-year-old Selena Domingez settled on tale of mustangs because she loves horses; classmate Abigail Mullaney was eager to read the story of a first grade that puts on play.
As the children posed with their new books, more waited impatiently in the hallway, keen to find their perfect book to curl up with.
Source: Daniels, Tammy. "Plunkett School Gets Kids Excited About Reading." iBerkshires, November 18, 2008.
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