Michelle Obama Launches a New Reading Series With 'The Gruffalo'
The former First Lady will share some of her favorite children’s books for “Mondays with Michelle Obama,” in partnership with PBS Kids, Penguin Young Readers and Random House Children’s Books. The four-week series kicked off at noon EST on Monday, April 21, with Obama reading Julia Donaldson’s “The Gruffalo” to hundreds of thousands of people stuck at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As a little kid, I loved to read aloud. And when I became a parent, I found such joy in sharing the magic of storytelling with my own children — and then later, as First Lady, with kids everywhere,” she said in a statement.
“At this time when so many families are under so much stress, I’m excited to give kids a chance to practise their reading and hear some wonderful stories (and to give parents and caretakers a much-needed break).”
Additional installments of “Mondays with Michelle Obama” will include readings of Tom Fletcher’s “There’s a Dragon in Your Book” (April 27); Eliza Wheeler’s “Miss Maple’s Seeds” (May 4); as well as Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” (May 11).
The series was originally scheduled to launch in the summer of 2020, with the Bookseller noting that the family-friendly initiative debuted earlier in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the health crisis, children’s publishers and celebrities are providing parents virtual learning opportunities during this time in self-isolation.
Earlier this month Dolly Parton launched “Goodnight With Dolly” on the YouTube channel for Parton’s Imagination Library, with new instalments of the bedtime-story series dropping every Thursday evening over the next two months.
The initiative finds the country icon reading books “carefully chosen for their appropriate content at this moment in time,” including “There’s a Hole in the Log on the Bottom of the Lake” by Loren Long, “Llama Llama Red Pajama” by Anna Dewdney and “Max & The Tag-Along Moon” by Floyd Cooper.
“This is something I have been wanting to do for quite a while, but the timing never felt quite right. I think it is pretty clear that now is the time to share a story and to share some love. It is an honour for me to share the incredible talent of these authors and illustrators. They make us smile, they make us laugh and they make us think,” Parton said of her new livestream series.
This story was first published via AFP Relaxnews.
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