he met hers, after which his teachers saw his reading improve three levels in one semester.


Animals help kids relax and become teachers to the dogs. Researchers at the University of California, Davis have found that reading skills for kids that read to dogs during a 10-week literacy pro- gram improved by 12 percent. Children in the same program that didn’t do the same showed no improvement. Dogs and other pets prove that reading out loud doesn’t have to be scary. All it takes is a good book and a good listener.


Connect with freelance writer Sandra Murphy at StLouisFreelanceWriter@ mindspring.com.


Other Four-Footed Reading Partners


Cleo, a small gray cat that lives with Michelle Cardosi, a retail clerk in Den- ver, enjoyed her Love on a Leash ther- apy visits. When she became arthritic, moving from lap-to-lap was painful, and Cardosi considered retiring her, but Cleo didn’t agree. “So we went to the library’s Whiskers and Tales pro- gram instead, where she could sit on a pillow, get petted and be the center of attention,” she says. “She was able to visit until her 18th birthday.” Clifford, a 24-year-old Morgan horse, is a well-known literacy advocate. He tours libraries in Michigan and using a sponge and watercolor paint, “signs” his biography, Clifford of Drummond Is- land, by author and Lansing artist Nancy Bailey, for his fans. “The kids probably won’t remember what I say, but they’ll always remember the day they saw a horse in the library,” says Bailey. “We’ve been visiting for about four years. He’s nosy and gets into everything, like the day he noticed the used book shelf. He picked out pulp fiction books and kept handing them to me.” Bailey notes that Clifford teaches children that horses have feelings and a sense of humor when he goes for laughs and changes his responses when doing tricks.


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Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. ~Abraham Lincoln


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