Go, Rudi!

Sometimes there is a student who is chugging along so well that you just want to hand them books and get out of the way.

Meet Rudi. He's a third grade student at Zanetti School in Springfield, Massachusetts, and with the reading recovery team there he has quickly rocketed from a late-kindergarten reading level to reading on grade level. Making progress like that means you go through reading material awfully quickly. Karen Schreiner, the City Connects Coordinator at Zanetti, let us know right away that Rudi needed books at home so he can continue his great progress.

Not surprisingly, Rudi's tastes are pretty omnivorous. "He loves nonfiction books about animals, sports, and natural science like tornadoes and volcanoes," Karen told us. So we packed up a box of books and brought them over. We even got to meet Rudi, who gives a firm handshake and looks you right in the eye when he says hello.

Of all the books, he was most excited about the young readers' edition of Moby Dick.

Go, Rudi!