Kempsey West Public School assistant principal Kim Hodge helped the school coordinate the day and was very happy with the whole program. 

“I’m very impressed with Karen and the whole team, they've all done a great job encouraging reading,” Ms Hodge said. 

“Quite a lot of the community has come for this, it's very exciting.” 

The day started with the SES volunteers delivering the egg and carefully placing it behind the privacy curtain while it hatched with the help of Nurse Lucy. 

“Today is great because it shows the children how their hard work has paid off,” Ms Hodge said. 

The reading dinosaur started off life as an egg found by Betty the bookworm, and to hatch the prehistoric creature children from various schools were encouraged to read to it, with the egg growing each time. 

“Having a goal to work towards encouraged the children to read, the more they did it, the bigger the egg grew.” 

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While this is a new program, Karen Hall has a long history with encouraging reading. 

“Karen started the “Sow the Seed to Read” program in Kempsey Hospital 19 years ago, Paint Kempsey Read is an extension of that program,” Ms Hodge said. 

While the hatching appears to have been a one-time thing, the newly hatched dinosaur isn't going away anytime soon.

“We can’t do it again, the Readalotasaurus has already hatched.”  

“The Readalotasaurus will now become the reading mascot for the foreseeable future, it will go back to all the places it visited as an egg to keep promoting reading.”

“There will also be a competition to name the dinosaur at a later date, all the schools that the egg visited will help name the dinosaur.” 

Paint Kemsey Read has been a joint project between Schools as Community Centres and Kempsey Shire Library and was designed to encourage young children to read.

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