If you’ve climbed all the highest peaks and want another type
of Adirondack accolade (and happen to be in grade school), now you can become a
46Reader. I stumbled across a cool website called AdirondackKids.com (more
links below) which both chronicles all the Adirondack children’s books that
have been made and is also itself a children’s books series.
The 46Reader patch is an award that Adirondack Kids gives
out to kids who read 46 books between 4th and 6th grade.
I thought it was a great way to promote reading to kids. They use the name
recognition and cultural value of “46 peaks” to get kids excited to have an
accomplishment like climbing all the high peaks. And the 46Reader patch takes
on a different character than just being a symbol of having read a bunch of
books – to kids, it also inherits the respect that accompanies climbing all the
high peaks.
Under the “Dax Facts” page, they list over 100 children’s
books that have been set in the Adirondacks dating back to the 1890’s. This
list and the Adirondack Kids series could be turned into a fascinating research
project, analyzing the changing culture over the past century. The heavy
influence of imagination and creativity in the books could limit the amount of “culture”
you can take from them, but at the same time, it might show how kids are
interacting with and interpreting the Adirondack environment.
This is really cool! I think this is a great idea to promote reading to kids in the Adirondacks who probably hear so much about the "46 Peaks" but may not have the opportunity to start climbing them. It is really creative of the program to take advantage of something like the "46ers" and spin it towards elementary education. I wonder if anyone is yet a 46er and a 46Reader...
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