NEWS
August 22, 1999
Move over, Oprah. Now Reba has a book club -- and a role in a national literacy organization.Country singer Reba McEntire has become national spokeswoman for First Book, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that works with local literacy groups to provide new books and tutoring to needy children.Along with that role, there is Reba's First Book Club, a national program intended to "encourage children and their families to discover the magic of books, as well as help raise funds to buy new books for homeless and disadvantaged children across America."
NEWS
By Madison Park and Madison Park,Sun reporter | August 5, 2007
Harford County is getting its own First Book, a nonprofit organization that gives books to underprivileged children. Harford and Cecil county residents are forming a local advisory board for First Book. The first batch of books will be distributed in September in Edgewood, according to the organization. Leading the effort is Veronica Jaynes, who is opening a day care center. A year ago, Jaynes moved to Street from Camden, N.J. "We had a First Book advisory board in Camden - a large one. We did readings with children, and I wanted to bring that idea here," Jaynes said.
NEWS
By DAVID L. GREENE and DAVID L. GREENE,SUN STAFF | January 31, 1999
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" slithered beside a neat row of desks and across the floor of a classroom in Sandtown. More accurately, it was 7-year-old Tierra Williams -- her body slouched over archlike, feet and palms gliding forward along the carpet -- acting out the lead character in her favorite children's book of the same name, by Eric Carle. "He eats apples, pears, oranges," Tierra said. "What else did he eat, Travon?""Strawberries and leaves," piped in New Song Community Learning Center classmate Travon Hopkins, also 7.The caterpillar eventually became stuffed, formed a cocoon, and turned into a butterfly.
NEWS
By BRADLEY OLSON and BRADLEY OLSON,SUN REPORTER | June 7, 2006
While David Danelo was in Iraq two years ago, he was "one of those guys" who wrote home about once a month to let friends and family know how things were going. As a Marine Corps captain in Fallujah -- an insurgent stronghold in the Sunni triangle -- he had plenty to say in his "updates from the front." The e-mails were passed around by friends and family and eventually caught the eye of Steven Pressfield, the author of Gates of Fire. The historical novel chronicles the Battle of Thermopylae, during which about 7,000 Greek allies held off millions of Persians in a mountain pass for three days in 480 B.C. Pressfield, whose work is popular with Marines, told Danelo he was a good writer, which made the young captain feel like "Babe Ruth had just told me I was a good baseball player."
NEWS
By Karen Nitkin and Karen Nitkin,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | March 20, 2005
By Maryland standards, this has been an unusually cold March. But to Havre de Grace resident Lucille Maistros, the brisk, windy days are no big deal. Maistros grew up in northern Vermont, where March is considered the dead of winter. "It's only 500 miles away, but up there it's going to look like January for another six weeks," she said last week. Her hometown, St. Johnsbury, just got 6 inches of snow, she said. Maistros describes her Vermont childhood in her first book, Growing Up Cold: a memoir of growing up cold, but longing to be cool, in 1950s Vermont.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Luke Broadwater and The Baltimore Sun | April 6, 2012
[Spoiler alert: Do not read further in this interview if you have not read "A Storm of Swords," the third book in the series, "The Song of Fire and Ice. "] Scottish actor Richard Madden, 25, has broken into the spotlight by playing Robb Stark on HBO's hit show, "Game of Thrones. " As the second season of the show continues, Stark, the eldest son of the beheaded Ned Stark (Sean Bean), has been declared "King in the North," and has launched war against his family's sworn enemy, the Lannisters, who hold the Iron Throne.