Anita Merina

National Education Association writer · author of the 1997 Read Across America reading verse

Anita Merina was a communications staff member at the National Education Association (NEA), which created its “Read Across America” literacy campaign in 1997 and held the first Read Across America Day on March 2, 1998 — the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Around that time she wrote the short rhyming verse whose couplet, “You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child,” became widely quoted. Because the campaign celebrated Dr. Seuss, her Seuss-flavored lines were soon misattributed to him.

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“You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child”

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