The following blog entry was written by Sarah Chassé, a copy editor of READ, Writing, and a whole bunch of other Weekly Reader magazines.

Watching TV rots your brain, right? Not necessarily. I spent last night learning some great new vocabulary words from my television--and no, there isn't a new reality show called Playing Scrabble With the Stars. We're talking the finals of the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which aired live on ABC.  The competition, held in Washington, D.C., featured 286 spellers from the United States and Canada. In the 13^th round, eighth grader Evan M. O’Dorney of Danville, Calif., spelled the word serrefine (seh-ruh-FEEN) to become the Super Bowl of spelling’s newest champ.

OK,  so maybe serrefine (an adjustable spring clamp used in cardiovascular surgery) isn't the most useful word—you can't exactly drop it into casual conversation. But it's still a cool word to know. Here are some other unusual words from the Scripps finals you can dazzle your friends and family with:

rascacio: (rah-SKAH-see-oh) a scorpion fish found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod to Brazil

bouleuterion: (boo-leh-TEE-ree-on) a council chamber in ancient Greece

schuhplattler: (SHOO-plat-luhr) a traditional folk dance from Bavaria and Austria in which dancers rhythmically strike their thighs, their knees, and the soles of their feet

grognard: (groh-NAHR) an old soldier

aniseikonia: (ah-nigh-sigh-KOH-nee-uh) a defect of binocular vision in which the two retinal images of an object differ in size

My favorite word from the bee was definitely schuhplattler (just don't ask me to demonstrate it). Have a favorite word of your own that you'd like to share? Drop us a comment! (And make sure you spell your word correctly!)

Gosh I love the last day of May. Forget about the fact that the weather is gorgeous and the flowers are, um, whatever. Today has a much more special meaning to me than sunshine and pollen. For today, my friends, is Walt Whitman's Birthday.

WWWWD?
- A poem by Bry

I imagine myself walking, climbing, treading the mountains
I am one man hiking his way to the top, to the peak of all peaks!
What lies in the distance is an unknown, an always known,
A question we all must ask.

What would Walt Whitman do
At the top of the mountain?
Would he stand there and laugh at the sky?
Would he fly off like a bird to the future of earth?
Would he sit for a spell, and just cry?

What would Walt Whitman do
Dear friends all around me?
Would he become one with the grass and the moon?
Would Walt breathe the air of ancestors, long gone, never forgotten
Or hideout in the universe's shed.

Walt Whitman, my friend, oh what would you do
If the mountain itself crumbled under you?
If the world turned to dust and left all of us,
Tell me what would you do, dear Walt Whitman?

"We're connected," he said, "You and me, on this thread,
This thread between space, between blurs.
If you tug on my beard, ancient rhymes will be cleared
From my mouth, to the page, to your WORD."

Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman, oh what would you do?
"Come with me. I will show you..."

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On The Beach At Night Alone
 - A poem by Walt Whitman

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Happy birthday, brother.

To read last year's birthday wishes, click here.

The following book review was written by Miss Erin, Grade 10. WORD is proud to welcome Miss Erin and we hope she will bring us many insightful book reviews in the future.

Wildwood Dancing
Juliet Marillier

Jena and her four sisters have plenty of everyday worries, with their mother gone and their father ill. They do have something they can look forward to during each Full Moon: they have a portal into the Other Kingdom, the world of fairies and dwarfs. But dangers lurk there, too. When the Night People pay a visit to the fairy court and one of Jena's sisters begins to fall in love with one, Jena begins to have doubts about their monthly visits.

At first the language of the story seemed flowery and heavy, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just something you have to be in the right mood for. Once I got a little way into the book, I was completely entranced. The author has weaved an amazingly visual and absorbing tale. Jena is a very sympathetic heroine, you can feel her fear, her joy, her anger, her contentedness. In fact, she reminded me just a little of Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennett. Wildwood Dancing is a thrilling and beautiful book that I couldn't stop reading.

Visit Miss Erin at her literary blog.

While perusing the Internet today (for research, I swear!) I came across a most disturbing article. Apparently, Tom Wayne, a man who owns a used book store, has so many books that he doesn't have the space for all of them. Libraries and thrift stores won't take the extra books--they don't have the room either. So, Tom is burning them.

Yes, this is probably a publicity stunt. To "raise awareness" about how people aren't reading. But isn't there a better way?

Clearly, with the proliferation of the Internet, people aren't reading books as much as they used to. (And yes, I'm aware of the irony of posting this blog on the Internet while complaining about it at the same time.) There are some really cool things online. I mean, where else can you get the biographical information about your favorite author and a site where you can watch cheese age? Good stuff! But is it really worth it if it causes the destruction of books?

The books that are being destroyed aren't even banned books. Not that I agree with the idea of banned books, but at least then there's a reason for the obliteration of knowledge and culture. An ignorant reason, but a reason nonetheless. Burning books for attention is just senseless.

So, I implore of you: Go out and buy some books! Whether it be the book you've read a thousand times or one you've always wanted to read--build up your own library. That way, there is room in book stores and libraries and thrift stores for new treasures. And innocent pages won't be led to the slaughterhouse.