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LOS ANGELES, CA- SAG Award winner Dulé Hill may star in the upcoming CBS series Doubt, but there isn’t any doubt about his passion for children’s literacy. In the latest Storyline Online (storylineonline.net) video, released today by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation in celebration of Black History Month, the former star of The West Wing and Psych reads the award-winning children’s book As Fast As Words Could Fly, written by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez and published by Lee and Low Books, the largest publisher of children’s literature specializing in diversity and multiculturalism.
The newest addition to the Storyline Online video library, As Fast As Words Could Fly tells the story of Mason Steele, a young African-American boy living in the south during the civil rights movement, who supports his activist father with the help of a typewriter in the fight for racial equality and ending segregation. The story is inspired by the real life experiences of the author’s father who lived in North Carolina in the 1960’s. A winner of the “New Voices Award,” As Fast As Words Could Fly speaks to the power of hard work, determination and resiliency in the face of injustice and prejudice.
Hill concludes his reading with a personal note to his viewers, “Words do matter, but actions matter that much more…. So no matter what people think about you, what they say about you, you don’t always need to respond. Just do you.”
“Dulé is not only a gifted actor and storyteller. He also serves as a Board Member of our Foundation, and has a history of giving back to his fellow actors and our children’s literacy programs through his volunteer service,” said Cyd Wilson, Executive Director of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. “He was a natural choice to read for Storyline Online, and he chose to read a very powerful book that is a free educational tool for teachers and parents to share during Black History Month.”
The video comes with supplemental activity guides for both home and school, aimed at students in 3rd-5th grades, that strengthen verbal, written and comprehension skills while engaging the themes from the book: civil rights/discrimination, overcoming obstacles, heroism, and conflict resolution. Activities encourage students to walk in Mason’s shoes as well as identify injustices that exist today.
Hill is the latest actor to join the ranks of Storyline Online readers which includes recent SAG Awards Life Achievement Recipient Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Kevin Costner, James Earle Jones, Christian Slater, Allison Janney and more, reading beloved children’s books out loud alongside inventively animated, original illustrations. Storyline Online is sponsored by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, available 24 hours a day at no cost to children, parents, and educators worldwide, and receives over 12 million views every month.
To view As Fast As Words Could Fly and all of the Storyline Online videos, visit storylineonline.net, and subscribe to youtube.com/storylineonline. Keep up with new videos to be released in 2017 by following @StorylineOnline on Twitter and StorylineOnline on Facebook.
