I begin every school assembly program with the Three Reasons Reading is Magic. I call them the Three E's.

Ben Franklin only had the chance to go to school for two years. Abraham Lincoln went to school for one year. Thomas Edison went to school just a few weeks.

"Because of hearing problems, Edison had difficulty following the lessons and his school attendance became sporadic. Nevertheless, Edison became a voracious reader and at age 10, he set up a laboratory in his basement."

Thus, a mighty secret is revealed: We can educate ourselves by reading! In fact, Rich Davis believes that the only way we become educated is by self-education. Many people go all the way through elementary, middle and high school and don't know a thing when they get through. Others become very smart while still in early grades of school.

Reading for knowledge, reading for information, reading for the love of learning is the key. Get excited about reading and learning.

Emulate the young Franklin, the young Edison. Love reading, love learning, and aim to be a great student in school . . . you will go far!

Reading is fun. Reading leads to great adventures. Go anywhere you want by reading! Think of the possibilities. With a little imagination and a stack of books from the library, you can go to remote parts of the world, live with strange people, do wonderful things.

You can do like Rich Davis did years ago and get excited about World War I aviators. Read their stories. Follow their footsteps. Become one of them!

Everything you read presents an opportunity for discovery and adventure. New worlds, new possibilities await!

Did you ever think about what makes people successful? Most folks want to be somebody when they grow up, somebody special. What exactly makes people special? Ben Franklin read and studied and thought about problems until he understood them better than anyone else.

Ben became a super expert in many areas, in addition to electricity. Franklin's experiments with electricity made him world famous.

Believe it or not, you can become a famous expert now! You can select something you love, something you want to know more about, and read about it, and study it, and talk to people about it, until you know more than anyone else about the subject. I tell you how to do this in the section called The Magic of Reading Challenge.

I hope you see the magic in these Three E's. You can prove the Three E's for yourself! For example, you can Educate yourself on a topic (Ben Franklin's Inventions, Thomas Edison's life, World War I flying aces), and have fun Exploring, while you become an Expert on the topic. Read about any of these subjects and in two weeks you will know more about them than anyone else in your class; in two months you will know more about them than anyone else in your school; in two years you will know more than anyone else in your state!