Going for a reading record

SPRINGVILLE — Some school.

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the 587 students at Art City Elementary read (by themselves or with some help) a passage from "Charlotte's Web," participating in a worldwide attempt to break the world record for the "Most People Reading Aloud Simultaneously in Multiple Locations."

Almost 550,000 people — in all 50 states and in 28 countries — read the "Salutations!" passage from the fictional book about a humble pig and his tender friendship with a spider who weaves into her web words such as "some pig," "radiant" and "terrific," and spares him from slaughter.

A movie based on the 1952 book by New Yorker writer E.B. White opens Friday. Wednesday's worldwide reading event was sponsored by the movie's makers, Paramount Pictures and Walden Media.

But Art City Elementary's librarian Angel Pearce thought the school should participate in the attempt to break the Guinness World Record, believing it would be a "terrific" opportunity to promote literacy.

First graders' faces brightened as their teachers enacted with puppets the beginning of the book, when the spider, Charlotte, introduces herself to the pig, Wilbur, for the first time with "Salutations!"

"Stretched across the upper part of the doorway was a big spiderweb, and hanging from the top of the web, head down, was a large, gray spider. She was about the size of a gumdrop," the teachers read. "She had eight legs and she was waving one of them at Wilbur in a friendly greeting."

The passage ends with Wilbur saying to Charlotte, "I think you're beautiful."

Pearce recommends parents read "Charlotte's Web" to children up to third grade. Children in third grade and beyond can usually read it on their own. Families can read the Newbery Honor Book together and discuss its messages, which are not confined to one's age, she said.

"Even if there are adults that haven't read it, (they can read it) because the messages are phenomenal about friendship and the power of words," she said.

Sixth graders in Janet Gee's class enacted the passage as the teacher narrated.

Many of the students read it when they were younger.

"I don't know (the story) that well, I haven't read the whole book," student Miranda Follette said.

Time will tell whether judges determine if the reading on Wednesday gets into next year's Guinness Book of World Records.

"We've turned in our numbers and all the children have signed a paper saying they were read to or were reading," Pearce said.

Guinness reports its current record is 155,528 students from 737 schools in the United Kingdom who read William Wordsworth's poem "Daffodils" in 2004.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com