Gov. McGreevey makes personal visit to Roosevelt Public School to congratulate winner.
By: Scott Morgan
ROOSEVELT Jesse Schuster had no clue. Like every other student at the Roosevelt Public School Tuesday, Jesse sat on the lobby floor and listened to Gov. James E. McGreevey read aloud from the book "Down by the Cool of the Pool."
And, like every other child in that lobby, Jesse didn’t know he was the one kid in the whole state one out of more than a thousand who tried who would provide the name for the mascot for the Governor’s Book Club.
The Governor’s Book Club is part of Gov. McGreevey’s signature program to encourage reading among elementary-age children in the state. As part of the club, the governor’s office sponsors a Web page, which is unofficially overseen by a cartoon seagull mascot, who now, thanks to Jesse’s wordplay, is named Booker C. Gull.
"Booker C. Gull is a great creative suggestion," Gov. McGreevey said. "We needed someone to name our seagull and Jesse did it."
When the governor announced that Jesse, an 8-year-old second-grader at the school, had penned the winning entry, Jesse received a thunderous round of applause from his schoolmates. He repaid the compliment with a noticeably surprised smile. Gov. McGreevey then gave him a signed drawing that included Booker, a ribbon and a proclamation thanking Jesse for his contribution to the governor’s literacy campaign.
Keeping the secret was easy enough for school officials, said Superintendent Dale Weinbach, because the school was not notified the governor would stop by until Tuesday morning.
"It was a big, big, big surprise," both for the school and for Jesse, Dr. Weinbach said.
It was tougher for Jesse’s parents Alan and Linda Schuster, who found out Monday that their son had won the statewide contest to keep a lid on things. But they did, and in the end, they are simply proud of Jesse’s achievement. The ongoing challenge, Ms. Schuster said, will be continued efforts to "keep him away from the TV."
And that, it turns out, is right in line with Gov. McGreevey’s message to the students.
"Read, read, read," he urged the children. "Reading empowers your mind and your future."
But judging by the questions from the kids, almost exclusively based around the question beginning "Have you ever read… ," Gov. McGreevey might just have been preaching to the choir. They stumped him on most of the titles.

