ANDERSON — Reading may be fundamental, but at the beginning of the summer 13-year-old Monique Whigham wasn’t interested. Now, she says, she loves reading. Why?

“My mom made me,” Monique said at the Anderson Black Expo on Saturday.

A group of educators insisted to parents at the Expo to encourage and promote literacy to their children. Though the free books in the “Kids World” tent brought a consistent stream of parents and children, fun elsewhere — including a boxing tournament — left a sparse audience listening to the mainstage presentation.

“We’re trying to encourage our kids to read and, not only read, but enjoy reading,” said Electra Young, a volunteer.

Schneida Burgess, the chairwoman of Kids World, said the original plan was to reward students who had participated in the literacy program throughout the summer. About 100 children, including Monique,  were bused from the Geater Center to the Anderson Public Library every Wednesday to read for an hour, Burgess said.

“I wanted them to read anything because that’s important; we’ve lost excitement,” Burgess said. “If it’s a comic book, let them read it.”

Monique’s face read “excitement” Saturday as she talked about “The Diary of Anne Frank,” the first-person tale of a young girl during the Holocaust.

“She’s been through a lot of things,” Monique said. “That’s the kind of stories I like to read. Real stories.”

April Whigham, Monique’s mother, said it hasn’t been easy to get her daughter to put down basketballs and pick up a book. But, she said, it’s vital to Monique’s future.

“It helps her in all of her education,” April Whigham said. “If you know how to read and comprehend, you can be anything.”

Jennette Harris, the principal of Tenth Street Elementary, told the scant audience at the presentation that parent-involvement is a must.

“When a kid begins school, he or she needs a vocabulary of about 40,000 words,” Harris said. “A lot of our kids don’t do well on their standardized tests because they didn’t get a good start.”

To remedy that, the principal told parents to incorporate words and reading to their daily lives. She begged parents to read to and with their kids.

“They need to read for comprehension,” she said. “When your kids are reading and you’re thinking, ‘Wow, my kid can really read,’” they may be just reading words but not understanding what the words are saying.

Harris also insisted parents teach discipline at home because “our teachers spend way too much instruction time on behavior.”

As for the best message parents can give their kids:

“Don’t tell them, they’re bad,” the light-voiced principal pleaded. “Remind them everyday that they’re special.”

Contact Christina M. Wright, 640-4883, christina.wright@heraldbulletin.com.