Name: Rena Arakawa
Age: 32
Position: Librarian at Queen Kaahumanu School
Education: University of Hawaii
Pastimes: Shopping, going to the beach, reading

Teachers could ask a child if he had a poem in his pocket, and those who promptly pulled one out and read it got a raffle ticket for a drawing at the end of the week. "The prizes include books or lunch with the principal or vice principal, which they really like," Arakawa said. Another week the children anticipate is Lunch Bunch, when she reads aloud from a novel while they eat in air-conditioned comfort in the library.

She works with children in kindergarten through fifth grade, guiding them through library resources and technology, which once included closed-circuit television broadcasting. But her main goal is "making reading a fun thing." She helps students find something that appeals to them in assignments "because if they're not interested, and they don't like it, they'll just go through the motions."

Once, around Dr. Seuss's birthday, she came to school as the Cat in the Hat. "Oh, that was fun! The kids always like it when you dress up," she recalled.

Principal Gayle Ozawa apparently liked the Cat gig also. Praising Arakawa's creativity and energy, Ozawa said, "She makes time to develop special projects which involve the entire school population ... (and) has entire grade levels buzzing."

The school may soon expand Poem in Your Pocket Week to higher grade levels, Arakawa said.