Kindergartners Welcomed to School by Maine Reads

The Raising Readers' staff was thrilled to join 50 other volunteers in Augusta, Maine to help pack over 18,000 copies of The Cat at Night, a classic picture book by Dahlov Ipcar. The book which alternates day and night perspectives shows young readers the things that only cats can see.

Maine Reads' Read with Me program run by First Lady, Karen Baldacci gives a book to every incoming Kindergartner in the state of Maine. Raising Readers is happy to lend a hand to First this wonderful annual book distribution. It is the least the staff can do, as First Lady, Karen Baldacci supports Raising Readers by serving as the chair of our Advisory Board.

The Cat at Night, written and illustrated by Ipcar in 1969, has been out of print for more than thirty years. First Lady, Karen Baldacci found the book while browsing the Maine State Library children's book collection. Islandport Press, a Maine-based independent publisher, was happy to republish this Ipcar book exclusively for Maine Reads.

Maine children are truly lucky. They receive up to 12 books from Raising Readers between the ages of birth and age 5 and when they enter Kindergarten, they are rewarded with yet another wonderful picture book from Maine Reads.