The best thing about reading books is you get to see the principal kiss the pig.
At least that's what Cambridge second-grader Zemam Beyene thought yesterday after she watched Tobin Elementary School Principal Donald Watson kiss Daisy, a pot-bellied pig, to honor a bet won by his students after they read more than 2,003 books in a year.
Yesterday was the National Education Association's Read-Across-America Day, and it culminated the reading challenge accepted by the 410 students (kindergarten through eighth grade) at the Tobin School.
By reading or having books read to them, the children were exposed to countless new ideas and new parts of the world. And after all that new exposure, what stood out above all else for Zemam?
``That we got to see Mr. Watson kiss the pig,'' she replied without hesitation.
Daisy, a black 8-year-old pig, rested comfortably in a modified baby carriage on the stage in the school auditorium while Paul Minor of Bristol, Conn., described the cushy life the pig has on his farm.
Daisy and ``Farmer Minor,'' as he calls himself, travel throughout the country to promote reading among schoolchildren.
Along the way, Minor said, he and Daisy have visited the U.S. Capitol (``They told us Daisy was the first four-legged pig to ever visit'') and received a thank-you letter from first lady Laura Bush.
Minor also played a tape recording of the various sounds Daisy makes when she is just waking up or is eating.
``If you don't want to sound like Daisy when you're eating, chew with your mouth closed,'' Minor advised.
