Let's Read America Pavilion
AT&T
AT&T invites you to join Dipper, the “AT&T Cares” star. “AT&T Cares” is AT&T’s employee involvement program, which encourages all employees and retirees to volunteer with local nonprofit organizations and schools. Meet some of AT&T’s literacy volunteers and share your favorite books with Dipper. You can become an “AT&T Cares” Reading Star and receive a Reading Star certificate and a photo with Dipper. Please join us in a celebration of reading!

AT&T is proud to be a charter sponsor of the 2004 National Book Festival.

TARGET STORES
Along with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, Target sponsors the “Letters about Literature” program for readers in grades four through twelve. To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, past or present, explaining how that author’s work changed their way of thinking about the world or themselves. For details on “Letters about Literature,” visit the Target area in the Let’s Read America Pavilion.

Visitors will also enjoy photos in the Target Big Red Chair. Measuring almost 5-feet-wide, the Big Red Chair is the symbol for “Ready. Sit. Read!” a national reading program created by Target in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education. “Ready. Sit. Read!” was developed to encourage a lifelong love of reading early in children’s lives. In addition to sponsorship of “Letters About Literature,” “Ready. Sit. Read!” includes a partnership with the national nonprofit organization Reach Out and Read, a baby book shower contest, monthly crossword puzzles for children and sponsorship of book festivals across the country.

Together with its parent company Target Corporation, Target Stores gives back more than $2 million a week to communities across America through grants and programs that focus on education, the arts and social services. Target is proud to be a charter sponsor of the 2004 National Book Festival.

PBS
Join PBS KIDSTM in our “Writer’s Studio” where children are invited to write and illustrate their own storybooks about their families to take home. After meeting your favorite PBS KIDS character outside, come inside the Let’s Read America Pavilion where you can attach your child’s photo with a PBS KIDS character to the book he or she created for a lasting souvenir of the National Book Festival. Learn more about PBS KIDS by visiting pbskids.org.

Kids can also have their photos taken with the PBS KIDS GO! characters including:

• Arthur
• Buster from the new “Arthur” spin-off, “Postcards from Buster”
• Digit from “Cyberchase”
• Maya and Miguel from the new program “Maya & Miguel”

Set to premier on October 11, PBS KIDS GO! is a new educational, multimedia destination specifically created by, for and about kids in their early elementary school years—an audience with limited choices for media that is both fun and educational. On the Web, pbskidsgo.org hosts sites from the series alongside unique destinations that focus on topics for this age group. Using a fun, quirky environment full of surprises, PBS KIDS GO! empowers today’s “big” kids to discover themselves, define the diverse world around them, explore new relationships and embrace a love of learning.

JONES INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Stop by the Let’s Read America Pavilion to learn about Jones International University (JIU), the first university to exist entirely online. Started by Glenn R. Jones in 1993, JIU became the first fully online university to be accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a member of the North Central Association, an accrediting body for institutions of higher education in the United States.

The majority of JIU’s students are working adults, generally balancing both career and family at the time they decide to continue their educations. For many of these individuals, a campus-based institution is simply out of the question, because of scheduling conflicts, business travel and childcare issues. These are among the individuals for whom JIU was created.

OTHER ACTIVITIES
PBS KIDS CHARACTERS
Meet your favorite PBS KIDS characters and receive a free picture taken by the PBS photographers. Here’s who coming:

• Clifford the Big Red Dog
• Grover from “Sesame Street”
• Cassie from “Dragon Tales”
• The Berenstain Bears
• Leona from “Between the Lions”
• Caillou
• Piggley Winks from “Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks”
• Zoboo from “Zoboomafoo”
• Mr. McFeely from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”

You’ll find these characters just outside the Let’s Read America and History & Biography Pavilions throughout the day.

SCHOLASTIC INC.
Scholastic’s Magic School Bus, a hands-on, interactive experience for kids of all ages, will be on the National Mall and available for touring. Visitors will have the opportunity to play with and explore any and all aspects of the following exhibits:

• Science displays based on Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus (STMSB) books/ television shows
• Actual animation cells from the TV Show
• A STMSB/Microsoft CD-ROM play station
• A STMSB/Sega Genesis play station
• A STMSB/Sega PICO play station
• A large series of STMSB books
• STMSB TV episodes playing on a video monitor
• Wonderful graphics and fun facts throughout!

In addition, Ms. Frizzle and Liz the lizard (main characters from the book “The Magic School Bus”) will be on the National Mall to host story time featuring a variety of Scholastic titles. Ms. Frizzle also will lead audience members in interactive science lessons/experiments on topics such as weather, insects, colors and dinosaurs.

WAL-MART STORES, INC.
Wal-Mart and SAM’S CLUB invite all readers to celebrate literacy at “Words Are Your Wheels.” Children of all ages will receive a book and CD with lyrics to the song “Words Are Your Wheels” by Phil Vassar and friends. Wal-Mart believes that words and their mastery are the “wheels” of life, taking us places faster and farther than otherwise possible. Wal-Mart’s 24-hour Literacy Helpline is one source of this help, and can be accessed by calling 1-800-929-4458. “Words Are Your Wheels” is located outside the Home & Family Pavilion.