Read Across the Region

You would like to bring Read Across the Region to your school, that’s great!

Please email your inquiry to Give@bbb4E.org with the number and size of second grade students in your school.

BBB4E begins connecting with schools around 3 months before the readings begin, Please reach out by Jan. 10, 2026 to be include in the 2026 Read Across the Region.

Contact give@bbb4e.org, readers are typically assigned to their school placement in early February.

All volunteers are required to complete the appropriate background check for the school where you will read.

The total volunteer time commit is about 1 hour and 15 minutes on the day of the reading.

Michelle Golden - “During a shopping trip to 2nd and Charles in 2019, How to Be a Lion found me. Seven hardback copies were in the store and marked $5 each. When I saw the book, I was struck by the warm color of its cover and the striking drawing of a Lion. The line drawing of Leonard was unusually warm looking for a lion. I gravitated toward it and without hesitation picked it up. I started to read it in the store. When I got to the page with Leonard and Marianne on "the thinking hill", I was sold. 

I bought 6 copies at $5 each and walked away knowing that this was a story that had an important message to share with the community as a whole. (I left one copy on the shelf to not be selfish and to let someone else find this treasure I discovered.) The tale of kindness portrayed through the friendship of a lion and a duck might not be so magical in itself, however, the author/illustrator felt the story so deeply that his use of line to create the gesture of Leonard, made him so unmistakably a lion, but also one who exuded character, confidence, and compassion. His empathy for Marianne is undeniable and can be felt easily by the reader--perfect for a second grade student.    

When I got to my studio library to find a place for the books, I put one aside. I thought to myself, I'm going to send one to a former student of ours, Ian Brundge. He's in college now. I'll just get his school address from his mother and make him a care package. I knew that he would appreciate the drawings and the message especially. I felt that sending the book would explain how I was feeling --knowing firsthand how much courage it takes to go away to school, especially pursuing a creative major.  

The book sat to the side and I thought many times about sending it, but for some reason, I didn't. In my hesitation, maybe I was subconsciously making plans for the future? This future. There was no possible way of knowing that the former student I was going to send the book to would return as an employee only a few short years later. Ian, would be the one that would help develop the project with me and we would figure out the system to bring Leonard to thousands of 2nd graders with the help of a variety of community leaders. 

The Read Across the Region initiative is more than a reading project. It is a purposeful artistic endeavor with beautiful materials, which reminds the community readers to dig deep, reminding themselves why it's important to be compassionate, how and why they are kind in their life and then, to transmit that through their voices while reading the story.  Each Leonard painting is similar, yet slightly different as no two are alike because they are hand painted. The little vellum papers, which are the written poems containing a kindness message are personally unique. Drawn in graphite, each student and community reader thinks about their words, composes their promises to be kind, and then, the final step is to put them in action into the future.

From mind, to hand and through action, we can all strive to be like Leonard.  As a collective, we create Leonard's mane; reminding us to NOT Chomp the duck!!”