PROVO -- Rosemarie Smith couldn't couldn't stop smiling. Her excitement was contagious.
After lunch on Tuesday, her students at Amelia Earhart Elementary School would be surprised with a hastily planned assembly with the Utah Jazz Bear.Smith, who is principal of the new Provo school, had arranged a last-minute visit from the furry, funny mascot to reward her students for accepting a challenge to read a million books by May 2000.
"I think that reading is the most important thing you can do in school," said Smith, noting that Earhart students are, page by page, inching toward the goal's last chapter, so to speak.
Earhart students squealed in delight when the Bear stepped through the door and sprayed the children with Silly String.
Countywide, in fact, students are poring through books, hoping to reach the lofty reading resolution that was set last year by Health Utah Valley Reads, a pro-literacy coalition of Utah County educators, boards of education and businesses.
Preliminary reports show that students in Alpine, Provo and Nebo school districts are meeting the reading challenge by the group Healthy Utah Valley Reads. By the end of last month, students had read 114,206 books.
Marilyn Kofford, president of Alpine's school board, says she believes wholeheartedly that reading is a gift that will impact a child's life forever.
"So as we head into a new millennium, we wanted to encourage and emphasize that reading should be an important part of daily life," she said. "This, then, is the purpose of the million-book challenge -- to encourage reading throughout Utah Valley among students and families."
To encourage students to read, a system of progress awards were started. For example, schools ask student-friendly celebrities -- such as the Jazz Bear -- to promote reading.
Here's another way reading has been rewarded: Each elementary school in the Alpine district has been provided with a banner to present to the "most read" classroom for the month.
Students rapidly reading a lot of books -- such as Hardy Boys mysteries or Judy Blume novels -- also are given awards for hard work.
A tally of finished books is made at the end of each month, along with the total read in each school district and the county.
To meet the goal, each student in the county will need to read close to 23 books by the time school ends for summer vacation.
Last week, Alpine lauded several schools for outstanding reading records. Shelley Elementary School in American Fork read the most books with 15.5 per student.
Each school in the program promotes student success with its own unique program of incentives and awards.
Businesses such as Covenant Communications, Seagull Book, Deseret Book, Media Play and Novell have also donated resources and personnel to the challenge.
At the end of the year, winning schools will receive cash awards for their libraries.
"The real reward for students," Kofford said, "is not in the recognitions but in the reading itself."