UPDATE: EAST LANSING - March is reading month is a nation wide celebration of children's reading and locally, at St.Thomas Aquinas Parish School, they like to celebrate pretty big with decorations and all.

"We have come up with different ideas every year, so it looks different and we've sort of expanded the hallway," said Kathleen Mayotte, Librarian. "It used to be we'd do just one wall and now we do several walls."

But the decorations and prizes aren't for fun and games, they're done in efforts to encourage reading.

"Our main goal is to increase kids interest in reading for pleasure," said Mayotte.

And I guess you can say they're going in the right direction.

"I really like the prizes cause it gives you, if you don't like to ready, it kind of gives you a reason to read," Kathleen Dewan, 7th grade student.

But for some students, it's about the challenge it brings to make them reach heights they've never reached before.

"My favorite thing is that you get challenged to read something that you probably don't read because the theme is different each year and it really surprises you what you can read and what you can do when you put your mind to it," said Chris McCarus, 4th grade student.

Encouraging students to read and increasing their interest are some of the schools biggest goals, but when they've convinced students that reading is more than an assignment, it'll feel like a complete objective.

"If we can remind them or introduce them to reading as a form of entertainment, then we've done our job," said Mayotte.



ORIGINAL STORY: EAST LANSING - Students at St. Johns are reading out of this world. See what they're doing for reading month on Meridian Magazine.