Illustrator on island for Read-A-Thon

by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Award-winning author and illustrator Floyd Cooper is on island in support of the 2012 Guam International Reading Association's Read-A-Thon. Cooper will spend this week visiting several of the island's public schools hoping to get literature in the hearts and minds of children.

"I really do hope we can spark interest in literature and reading which is so crucial to the development of the minds of young children," he said. "And the Guam children that I've met so far are really on the mark, they don't need much inspiring, they are fantastic."

Cooper is originally from Oklahoma and resides in Pennsylvania and has over 60 published children's books along with over 2,000 book cover illustrations. He will hold a teen workshop this weekend along with a teacher workshop on Monday both at the John F. Kennedy High School art room.