Well, I started this post about a month ago, but for whatever reason got distracted and forgot to come back to it. So, here is what was meant to be my most recent post!
Reading Rainbow was a PBS kids show that ran from 1983 to 2006 and hosted by LeVar Burton, known for his role as Kunta Kinte on Roots and Geordi LeForge on Star Trek the Next Generation. Each episode included three parts, an illustrated story read aloud by a guest reader, a video field trip to some exciting location based on a theme related to that episode’s book, and recommendations from kids for books they loved. For me and many of my contemporaries it was a staple of our tv diet.
My sister and I grew up watching LeVar Burton take us on video field trips all around the country. The two that stick with me most are him visiting a recreation of a renaissance village and a behind the scenes look at Star Trek. Books covered the spectrum from glimpses at life in another country to science fiction adventures. It was one of our favorite shows and we watched it all the time.
Needless to say I was saddened when it went off the air – I still watched it occasionally, even in college. My understanding is that the station that produced it decided that they needed to spend more time on the “how’s” of reading than on instilling a love of reading in children. In my opinion a poor choice. But cancelled it was and it was the end of an era for children’s television.
Almost two years ago now LeVar Burton decided to make the push to bring Reading Rainbow back. However, with so many changes in technology he saw and opportunity for something new and exciting. This time, rather than doing a television show, Reading Rainbow would be reincarnated as an Internet app. Although somewhat problematic for reasons too lengthy to go into here (feel free to email and ask me) this was an exciting new opportunity to do something I thoroughly believe in – spread the love of reading to kids all over the world.
The vehicle for funding this new project was a Kickstarter campaign and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to back it. As you may know, one of the things about Kickstarter is that when you pledge your money you are rewarded with something from the campaign. This may be something like a personal thank you card, a book or piece of software, or a unique experience. In the case of Reading Rainbow there were many reward options, including all of the above. I looked through them and quickly decided which one: a live event with Patrick Stewart – Captain Picard from Star Trek – reading children’s books live with LeVar Burton. Although it took digging into my savings a bit I felt this one of a kind event was well worth a reduction to the bank account. After all, if there is anything after death it would be our memories we’d take with us, not stuff, so I will always choose exciting events when I can.
So, as you may have guessed, I’m writing about this now because I just attended the event. It was, perhaps, one of the most exciting events of my adult life. Ten years ago I never would have imagined I’d go see some of my favorite actors read books to a small group in an intimate venue. I have been looking forward to this ever since I clicked confirm on my Kickstarter pledge.
Making this even more exciting was, due to the intricacies of scheduling working actors, it worked best for them to to combine the event with Patrick Stewart with the event scheduled with William Shatner. So, I got to see both Star Trek captains at the same time! What an experience!
You may be wondering now what the event was like. Well, it was much like an episode of Reading Rainbow, but with some of the trappings of an event with celebrity speakers. LeVar was introduced by a nine year old girl,Danay Ferguson, who at the age of seven, founded Reading Heart, an organization that provides free books to underprivileged kids. Not only did she get to introduce LeVar, but he made a donation of several thousand copies of his children’s book “The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm” and organized a book drive for members of the audience to donate as well, with every book donated being matched with another copy of his book.
The rest of the event went much like an episode of the tv show. The theme for the afternoon was, predictably, space, so it started out with a video of LeVar visiting Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It gave a brief history of space flight from Sputnik to Orion and ended on an optimistic note about the future of humans in space.
After the video was the main attraction. LeVar gave brief introductions and out came William Shatner (introduced as Bill) and Sir Patrick Stewart. Both got standing ovations. The first book they read was an endearing tale of a second grader convinced his teacher is from “Mars: Mrs. Martin is a Martian”. Told in the form of a diary our hero points out all the reasons his teacher must be from Mars – she knows he is taking a second pencil from the box of sparkly pencils she handed around (for research on Martian pencils of course) without even looking, so she must be able to read minds; she never goes to the bathroom; and of course she is always at school before them and doesn’t leave when they do so she must live in her spaceship hidden in the teachers’ lounge. There are a number of other indications Calvin finds quite convincing, despite his research partner Bill’s skepticism. It was a very fun book, especially read in turns by the three actors.
Their second book was “Beware of Wolfgang”, a three little pigs tale starring three robot brothers and Wolfgang the Reclaimer, the big bad wolf character. The twist was the story was somewhat the opposite as far as the houses went. The first two brothers had fairly sturdy houses, but were tricked by Wolfgang, and I’ll leave it to you to find out the ending. It was quite a fun book and someday I’ll read it to R. Hopefully she enjoys it as much as I did.
The event ended with a “gameshow” in which random audience members were brought up to play a guessing game with the stars. The MC would hold up a card behind the audience member with the answer, all things from Star Trek, and the actor would give clues, much like the family game Taboo in which one reader has the answer and has to give clues without using the word. It was really fun to watch.
After the event I found out that the little red ticket they had given me when we checked in was an indication that I had been given a gift bag. Inside was a bookmark and a copy of the “Bionic Bunny” episode of Reading Rainbow, which is the one that takes place on the set of Star Trek the Next Generation in which we get to see behind the scenes of the show. Even better, it’s signed by Levar and Bill! How cool is that?
In any case, this was definitely a highlight of my year and I only wish R had been old enough to have memories of it when she grows up. Oh well, I can still tell her about it when I’m showing her all the “retro” Star Trek episodes later in life.