ALL EARS
Scarlet enjoys a book read by Liam Law. Photo used courtesy of Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.
We give thanks this month for the fall program at the Carl Sandburg Home that saw local children reading aloud to wide-eared farm animals. “Read to a Goat Day” happened in September in conjunction with National Literacy Month. Also called Connemara, the Carl Sandburg Home belonged to the late populist poet and Lincoln biographer, who wrote a third of his output here. Sandburg, his wife Lilian, and their three daughters enjoyed a robust literary life, including an overflowing home library and lots of reading aloud. Here, Liam Law shares a book with Scarlet, one of the many dairy goats — descended from Lilian’ prize herd — who lives on the 264-acre property. “The program went really well,” reports Sarah Perschall, program manager for Visitor Services at the rural estate, a National Park Service-administered site. “We had more than 3,000 visitors to the barn during September, and most of the young families picked up a book on the way in. Some adults even brought blankets and sat reading in the pasture for an hour or more. The goats loved the attention — and were very curious about the books!”
— Ed.
For more information about family programs at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, 1800 Little River Road, Flat Rock, see nps.gov/carl.
