Kudos to the Rotary Club for giving free dictionaries and thesauruses to students throughout Lawrence County.

It may seem futile to give out books in these days of Kindles and smart phones, but a book still remains a special thing, even in this modern age.

While computers and smart phones come loaded with a dictionary and easier to use when texting, there is nothing like holding an actual book in your hands and just reading through it for fun and to learn new words that you may not encounter otherwise. And there is nothing quite like reading a thesaurus. Do you need to know 14 different synonyms or 11 antonyms for the word “calm?”

You might if you’re writing a poem or trying to set the scene for a story for English class.

Learning is based on building on what you already and expanding by making new connections and there is little better than the printed word to do that.