I got a chance to crack the books this weekend with some baby bookworms.

Every spring, St. Luke’s teams up with Barnes & Noble in Boise to mark the March 2 birthday of every child’s favorite doctor: Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known across the world as Dr. Seuss. I’ve had the pleasure of serving as a reader at this wonderful event for the past eight years. 

This year, St. Luke's Children's Hospital hosted four education stations highlighting care coordination, early literacy, injury prevention and education. The booths included interactive games for children that emphasized how reading is “good medicine.” Fraternity members from Boise State got into the action by crafting sock puppets that made a showing in the display.

Whether for education (school), being able to know what you are ingesting (prevention), improving reading levels (early literacy) or knowing how to understand a diagnosis and options through reading (care coordination), the evidence is in that the written word can change lives and improve conditions for people of all ages, and it’s never to early to pick up the habit of picking up a book.

And I picked up two on Saturday, specifically "Big Words for Little Geniuses" by Susan and James Patterson and "On the Night You Were Born" by Nancy Tillman. As in years past, my listeners included my grandchildren. We’ll see if they’re game to join me again next year!

How you can help

St. Luke’s Children’s maintains a list of books that people can purchase to support pediatric programs. The books can be found at the Barnes & Noble checkout line for purchase and donation to Children's. This week, people who purchase books and mention St. Luke's will receive a small percentage off of their purchase.