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Does everybody see what this is?
The garden found an old forgotten thing.
Do you see what that is?
An old car, yeah. It’s a clunker. Right there.
We need to get them some cash for that.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls please join me in
welcoming our host and guest all fathers today.
First, the man who helps us learn to our fullest potential
and our host U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
The man responsible for safe housing
across the nation, U.S. Secretary of Housing
and Urban Development Shaun Donovan.
And the man responsible for helping us sell
American goods and services across the world,
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.
Are you guys ready to hear a couple of stories?
We’ve got a good day. Last week it was
burning up out here. Today it’s not so bad.
All right Is everybody ready?
This is a book called "The Curious Garden,"
and it’s by Peter Brown. Alright, are you ready?
Rather than waste his winter worrying about the garden,
Liam spent it preparing for spring.
After three cold months the snow finally
began to melt and Liam rolled his new
gardening gear over to the railway.
Many years later the entire city had blossomed.
But of all the new gardens Liam’s favorite
was where it all began.
There it is. The entire city became a garden.
The end.
Actually I think I could use some helpers here.
Who loves to read? Who loves to read?
Why don’t I take about six people.
Come on up. Six people. You in the blue.
Are you a good reader? Come on up.
Help me in just a second, okay?
I have dreams about those shoes.
Black high-tops, two white stripes.
At the shoe store Grandma turns those shoes over
so she can check the price.
When she sees it, she sits down heavy.
“Maybe they wrote it down wrong,” I say.
Grandma shakes her head.
Hmm, so it sounds like it’s a little bit more money
than Grandma thought, right?
Antonio leans forward and says, “Thanks.”
And I smile and give him a nudge, “let’s race!”
And they’re racing in the snow.
Alright, that’s the end of the story.
Alright thanks. Let’s give our readers
a big round of applause. Stand up all of you. Stand up.
All of our readers stand up. Stand up.
Alright thank you, great job readers.
We have one more special announcement
from somebody, Mr. Jeff Smink who would like to make
a quick presentation to our host
Secretary Duncan for his work on summer learning. Jeff?
I’m glad to hear that everybody had such great summer.
It’s obviously very important to our organization.
We’re an organization called the National Center
for Summer Learning and our main goal
is to make sure that kids all across the country
are able to go to summer programs like the ones
that you went to. And it’s my pleasure to present our
2009 Champion of Summer Learning Award
to Secretary Duncan.
Thank you so much. Are you guys ready for
those free books? And some water?
Alright, thank you so much for the award.
Thank you guys for all of your hard work.
To all of our teachers, and administrators and
parents here, thank you for believing in our children.
I really appreciate it.
Well reading is really the foundation
for all academic success. And it doesn’t matter what
our kids want to do when they grow up,
whether they want to be a dancer, an artist, an architect,
an engineer, a carpenter, a mechanic.
Reading is the key to really developing
that critical thinking skill that will be the foundation
for whatever they want to do.
If they stop reading it will take them several months
really to get back up to speed when school starts.
And we really want our kids to continue moving forward,
not spending much of their school year catching up.