 Elementary students in the Bemidji area schools are learning new reading skills through a very popular hamster so popular that the district has given them a copy to each student of the book from them to work on their reading skills with their families. Mal Meyer has this week's Golden Apple. The program is designed for students of all ages to be able to work on their reading skills with their families. I like pizza. The One District One Book program launched last week. Each student received a brand new copy of the book, the world according to Humphrey. Every student walked home with a book that day and you can see how proud they are to take that book home with them and it's their book to have. Each day, students from kindergarten to fifth grade will read a chapter at home. For parents who may have difficulties reading or short on time, there are audio book videos on the district's website of each chapter. Really the focus is at home, so we want to have activities for the parents to be doing, but the teachers then bring that back. And when they come back to class, they'll do different activities and trivia based on the reading. While some of the older students have already read the book, they can still learn from it. They're able to kind of understand a little bit more some of the things that the author implies but doesn't specifically say. So because they're at that higher level, they can kind of get some new things out of the book that they maybe didn't get the last time they read it. Deborah Brown says some of her fourth grade students have also read it before. And they're still enjoying reading through this book again and discussing it because it's just such a fun book. Some of the skills students have been learning through this book have been reinforced with their regular readings. They're still stopping every so often and talking about the characters or making predictions and giving them ideas for things that they can talk with their parents about when they read it at home. So far, it seems to be working. I've had parents come back and say that it was nice because it was something that we could talk about and read together. While this is the first year, the teachers hope the program continues. So I hope this initiative continues. I'd like to see this become something we do every year. With this week's Golden Apple, in Bemidji, I'm Al Meyer, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.