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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

Community members shared their love of reading with Maplesville elementary school students on March 3 as a part of Read Across America Week.

Monica Sanchez came to read to her daughter’s class.

“I love to read to Sofia, so we talked about it after Ms. Payne asked me to come … and I was so happy to come and read to you guys because we read all the time, and she (Sofia) reads to me too,” Monica Sanchez told the class before she read.

Monica Sanchez read “I am Frida Kahlo” by Brad Meltzer.

“She was born in Mexico, raised in Mexico, and she was an amazing painter,” Monica Sanchez said. “She loved the arts.”

Sanchez said her family also loves the arts and “I think that’s a great way of expression and also just to get your imagination to flow.”

Ashley McHugh chose to read “Thank you, Mr. Falker,” a book about how a student works through struggling with reading and losing her grandparents.

“It has real struggles that children face daily,” she said. “It is encouraging for them to not give up when things are difficult in life, especially for students who are dyslexic and struggle with reading difficulties, not just in the early years, but all through elementary school.”

McHugh said the book is actually about the author.

“It has a happy ending in that good things came from the broken places in her life,” McHugh said.

She said she enjoyed reading to students during the event as a way to be a “vessel of hope.”

Hilda Atchison read “Horrible Harry Moves up to Third Grade” because she thought it was a book she could get the students involved in.

“I love to read,” Hilda Atchison said. “My mother — I think she read nearly every book in the Maplesville library. She was an avid reader, so I just grew up reading … and I love to read to the kids because they have reactions to everything.”

Chilton County Schools Superintendent Jason Griffin brought a Dr. Seuss book that he enjoys reading to his granddaughter.

“I like reading the ‘ABC Book’ because it gives me the opportunity to elaborate,” Griffin said.

After reading the book, Griffin asks students to name things beginning with certain letters.

Maplesville classes also did author studies and had doors decorated in honor of the author as a part of the celebration.