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Child-sized book covers, future doctors and a larger-than-life hungry green caterpillar marched through the hallways of a Landover school to celebrate the imagination that sparks from the written word.

Cora L. Rice Elementary held its second annual Fall Literary Parade on Oct. 29 where students dressed up as characters from their favorite books or as book covers themselves and marched through the school hallways and onto an outside blacktop to the sounds of snare drummers from the band of the adjoining G. James Gholson Middle School.

"The whole thing around the literary parade is to show reading can be fun, it can be exciting and it can take you places," Principal Mattie Turman said.

The parade is just one part of the school's efforts to encourage reading after the school lost funding this year to continue the America's Choice program, a professional development program to improve student reading comprehension and literacy. The county school system restricted the program to Title I schools, which Cora L. Rice is not, Turman said.

Turman said what stood out about the program was the instructional support, networking opportunities and its focus on literacy, which she said is the key to succeeding in any subject.

"The whole idea of America's Choice is to promote independent reading," Turman said.

In preparation for the parade Oct. 29, classes studied "The Wizard of Oz," "Babe the Blue Ox" by S.E. Schlosser, biographies and character traits of main characters in a book of their choosing. Students wrote book reports and some classes dressed as book characters to march in the parade. Cora L. Rice's Head Start kindergarten classes studied Eric Carle, author of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and paraded a large green caterpillar through the halls.

Fifth-grader Brianna Taylor, 10, of Landover said she and her classmates did individual studies on Paul Bunyan's tall tales from "Babe the Blue Ox" and were asked to pick their favorite character and write why. Brianna studied Bunyan, an oversized fictional lumberjack whose companion was Babe.

"He was [more] out of the ordinary than all of the other characters," Taylor said. "His story made me laugh. He was weird."

Turman predicts at least 75 percent or more of her student body would have to receive free and reduced meals for Cora L. Rice to receive Title I status and therefore be eligible for special programs like America's Choice next year. There are 69 Prince George's County schools that receive Title I funding this school year.

As of mid-September 67 percent of the student body received free and reduced meals, and the number could still climb, Turman said. About 120 students from Landover's John Carroll Elementary, a Title I school that closed due to county schools consolidation, now attend Cora L. Rice. Last school year 62 percent of Cora L. Rice students received free and reduced meals.

Cora L. Rice is also still in school improvement status after failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress, a state department of education benchmark for reading and math proficiency, for the 2008-2009 school year. Two school subgroups, special education and free and reduced meals, failed to make AYP in both reading and math.

Some teachers are choosing to continue with one of the cornerstones of the program, a 25-book campaign where students are encouraged to read at least 25 books before the end of the school year, Turman said. She will also continue with the "Principal's Book of the Month" but because of funding cuts had to discontinue a parent's book club that used to run out of the parent resource room.

But Turman said with the absence of America's Choice, she is more encouraged to get parents involved in their child's reading habits. Staff held an evening meeting two weeks ago where parents sat with their child to do sample Maryland School Assessment questions and continues to do "Parent Read-Ins" where parents read with children afterschool. She hopes independent reading time is echoed at home.

Parent Bridgette Maldonado of Landover stood outside the school entrance Oct. 29 hoping to snap a photo of her sixth-grade son Nazar Scott, 11, dressed in a suit to portray President Barack Obama. Nazar read "Barack Obama: An American Story" by Roberta Edwards.

"He keeps up with current events," Maldonado said. "I thought that would be a good choice to stick with."

Maldonado said the parade was a great way for the students to express themselves and that Scott loves to read, particularly author Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book series. She and Scott go to the Borders bookstore to pick out books every few weeks, she said.

"While he's into it, I'm going to keep nurturing it," Maldonado said.

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.