WARDEN — For Read Across America Week, Warden Police Chief Rick Martin stood in the office of Warden Elementary School sorting through a stack of Dr. Seuss books.

“‘Hop on Pop,’” he said. “That’s a classic.”

The chief, however, selects another story entirely — P.D. Eastman’s Big Dog, Little Dog. It’s his second-day reading stories to grade schoolers as part of Read Across America Week, and he decided to switch it up from Dr. Seuss because he’d read Green Eggs and Ham on Monday.

“I did that one yesterday because when I was in the Army stationed at Fort Ord in 1981, we were out in the field and we got food in the morning and it really was green eggs and ham,” he said. “In the Army, it all tastes the same way.”

Read Across America Day was started in 1998 by the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, to honor the late Theodore Geisel — who penned children’s books under the name of Dr. Seuss — and encourage children to read. Expanded to a week and to authors other than Seuss, the event sees politicians, public figures and volunteers come to classrooms across the country to sit and read books to young children.

“It’s a highlight for the kids,” said Christina Martin, who teaches second grade at Warden Elementary. “It’s awesome to have all these guests come into our classrooms and people from different occupations.”

Christina added that having outsiders from various backgrounds and walks of life come in and read books helps children see just how important it is to know how to read.

“It helps with their fluency and it’s just fun overall,” she said.

Greg Kleuber, a former elementary school teacher himself who now runs after-school programs, said it feels good to be back in a classroom spending time with children.

“I did my student teaching here back in 2004 and 2005,” he said. “I just want to work with kids.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].