Virtual or in-person, it’s time to celebrate NEA’s Read Across America on March 2. Books and stories provide points of access for understanding other people’s lives, to walk in someone else’s shoes—or to try on a different hat!

In NEA’s digital Read Across America calendar, the theme for March is “Cultivate Compassion” and features Tiara’s Hat Parade in March for elementary readers, a colorful, engaging story that shows students how they can put their compassion into action.

(Each Tiny Spark is March’s middle grade novel. They Called Us Enemy is the Young Adult novel for the month.)

First launched by NEA in 1998, Read Across America is now a year-round program to fit reading fun into your calendar daily, weekly, or monthly and includes big celebrations of reading on March 2 and throughout National Reading Month in March.

Learn more and take advantage of NEA’s excellent teaching resources at nea.org/readacross.