Young readers support a SouthCoast tradition.

Tomorrow and on Sunday, scores of Herman Melville fans as well as the merely curious will converge upon the New Bedford Whaling Museum for the twelfth annual Moby-Dick Reading Marathon. To learn more about an event that has become something of a local tradition in my home area, take a look at this post from two years ago. As today's New Bedford Standard-Times reports, new participants in this year's marathon include a group of eager young readers who are just beginning to grapple with a work that merits lifelong attention. Here's more from the Standard-Times:

They have trolled the Atlantic with Captain Ahab in search of an elusive white whale. They know Ishmael like an old friend. And on Saturday, city fifth-graders will celebrate "Moby-Dick" alongside countless other fans of the classic novel.

Eight students from Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, who spent the past month reading and discussing a young readers' version of "Moby-Dick" as part of their book club, will attend the kickoff of the 12th annual "Moby-Dick" Marathon at New Bedford Whaling Museum.

"The students are really excited about attending and they know their New Bedford and whaling history," teacher Debbie Perry said. "The kids basically read the book on their own and their conversations about the book were student-directed. We've read other books, but this just happens to be one of the literature circles we wanted to take a step further."

An estimated 150 people are expected to read aloud short passages from the novel during the 25-hour marathon. The students are not scheduled to read at the event, but they wanted to participate in the celebration anyway, Ms. Perry said.

. . .

Ms. Perry said her students were so interested in the famous 1851 whaling novel by Herman Melville that they want to continue their discussion with a "Moby-Dick" club that would meet every week.

Since Moby-Dick is one of my favorite books, I'm glad to hear that a few New Bedford youngsters are enthusiastic about a masterpiece that also happens to be a part of local lore. The notion of allowing literary classics to be read in adapted 'young readers' versions doesn't entirely sit well with me - even though I'll confess to having read a comic book based on Moby-Dick when I was a kid - but I hope this early exposure to Melville gets some of the Lincoln School students interested in eventually reading the original text. I hope, too, that posts like this one inspire readers of this blog who aren't acquainted with Melville to give his work a try. AMDG.