The Cat in the Hat and his sidekicks, also Cats in Hats, visited Pike Liberal Arts School and Pike County Elementary School this week to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and National Read Across America Day.

The “Cats” visited PLAS on Wednesday and PCES on Thursday.

Most of the students at PLAS thought the Cat in the Hat looked a lot like Brundidge Mayor Jimmy Ramage and the cat who came along with him looked familiar, too.

Ramage, who is also the First National Bank board chairman, laughingly said he and bank employees enjoy donning Dr. Seuss’ trademark red and white stripped, stove pipe hats and visiting with young students in celebration of the birthday of the “most popular” children’s author.

Ramage said reading is important and Dr. Seuss’ books of rhymes and nonsense are just plain fun.

“Every kid loves Dr. Seuss, and his books make reading fun,” Ramage said. “If kids learn to enjoy reading, they will read more and reading is important to everything that we do.”

Ramage reminded the students at both schools that Dr. Seuss’ 2016 birthday celebration marked his 112th birthday.

“Dr. Seuss was born in 1904 and that’s also an important date in history,” Ramage said. “That’s the year the Wright Brothers made their first flight. One day you will learn more about those two brothers.”

And reading will probably be a vehicle through which the learning occurs.

Patsy Jordan, PLAS librarian, said the children at PLAS look forward to Dr. Seuss’ birthday each year. They like dressing up like the silly, funny characters in his books and being silly and funny, she said.

“All children like the rhymes and the made-up, nonsense words,” she said. “This enjoyment of reading carries over to their school work and to later in life. If students are forced to read and don’t learn to enjoy reading they will not want to read.”

The kindergarten students at PLAS were encouraged to dress as their favorite Dr. Seuss characters and they came to school as a variety of Dr. Seuss characters including The Lorax, Sally, One Thing, Two Thing, Sam I Am and, of course, the Cat in the Hat.

Janet Dempsy, PCES librarian, said that reading is a skill that, when development, opens the doors to knowledge, to opportunity, to enjoyment and to the wide and wonderful world.

“Dr. Seuss makes reading fun at time when children are being taught to read,” she said. “It is so important for children to learn to enjoy reading. If they don’t enjoy reading, they will not be lifelong readers.”

Calvin Mulkey, an intern at PCES, said bringing young students together for a reading event like Dr. Seuss Day, whets their thirst for reading.

“When students come together to read, they are engaged,” he said. “They are encouraged to read through that togetherness and the enjoyment of it.”