Come with us as we share videos of some of our author friends reading the delightful stories they have created!
Green Green
In this video, Temple Tyler School of Art and Architecture Landscape Architecture Associate Professor Baldev Lamba and his wife Marie Lamba read their story Green Green: A Community Gardening Story. The story is illustrated by Sonia Sanchez.
Green grass is wide and fresh and clean for a family to play in, and brown dirt is perfect for digging a garden. But when gray buildings start to rise up and a whole city builds, can there be any room for green space? The neighborhood children think so, and they inspire the community to join together and build a garden for everyone to share in the middle of the city.
The Girl Who Heard the Music
In this video, author Marni Fogelson shares her story The Girl Who Heard the Music: How One Pianist and 85,000 Bottles and Cans Brought New Hope to an Island. Words by Marni Fogelson with Mahani Teave. Pictures by Marta Álvarez Miguéns.
Imagine living on a tiny island more than a thousand miles from any other inhabited place! That's where a girl named Mahani lived ― on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. Mahani grew up taking music lessons on the island's only piano. She had the talent to become a great pianist, but pursuing that dream meant leaving the home she loved.
As Mahani toured the world as an acclaimed concert pianist, Rapa Nui stayed close to her heart. She knew the island struggled with problems like ocean trash and wondered how she could help. So, she returned to Rapa Nui with a new dream ― to build a music school! The unique building is constructed with recycled trash and has solar panels and a food garden. Now Mahani is helping build a more sustainable future for her island home ― where the music continues. Learn more here.
Our Favorite Books
Where Do You Want to Go Today?
Stories are essential. From book to book, page to page, reading is a journey that can take you anywhere. You can go on any adventure. All you have to do is turn the page!
In this video, an introduction to our Favorite Books video below, Temple University Ambler Content Manager and Ambler Arboretum EarthFest Co-Coordinator Jim Duffy, talks about how books connect us to the special people in our lives, the transformative journeys that they take us on and how they influence how we connect to the world around us.
He also asks an important question for Read Across America — “Where do you want to go?”
Pages and Pages of Memories: What is Your Favorite Book?
It may seem like a simple question — “What is your favorite book?” But think about it. Can you pick just one? You don’t have to — and the folks at Temple Ambler who shared their favorite books certainly didn’t.
The books they talk about in this video run the absolute gamut of stories, from a 1940’s-era non-fiction book about Economic Plants that led to a lifelong passion for plants to several trips to The Secret Garden, a visit to Sylvester and a certain magic pebble, the broad diversity of Pride and Prejudice, The Poky Little Puppy, The Stranger and The Plants of Pennsylvania to the fantasy worlds of Narnia, Hogwarts, and A Wrinkle In Time.
People make connections in so many ways and for so many reasons to the worlds on the pages of books.
You don’t have to pick just one, but during Read Across America, we just have to ask you — What is your favorite book?