When librarian Joanne Melinson first started the “The Cat in the Hat” Polyglot, the children’s book was read in only French, Spanish and Latin. Approximately 15 years later, Latin teacher Jane Batarseh and Melinson have opened the event to all languages, amassing 26 on Feb. 22. Students and faculty read in Hindi, Vietnamese, Arabic, Swiss German and even ASCII among others as the Cat in the Hat (freshman Jackson Margolis) held up signs with the names of the participants’ languages.
Sophomore Heidi Johnson, who takes AP Spanish, reads in Spanish.
Fourth-grade teacher Anita Kassel reads in Swiss German.
Sophomore Brandy Riziki speaks in Kinyarwanda, which is also known as Rwandan and is spoken in Rwanda, Eastern Congo and parts of southern Uganda.
Marisa Christie, eighth grader Erin Wilson and her sister sixth grader Anna read a section in Italian.
English teacher Patricia Fels stands on a chair and holds up posters of diagrammmed sentences. Fels uses diagramming in her sophomore class and the AP English Language and Composition class to teach grammar.
Latin teacher Jane Batarseh translates a section into Arabic.
English teacher Ron Bell reads a passage in Shakespearean English.
—By Sonja Hansen
