It can be hard to keep an audience of third graders entertained...but not when you hand them a new book chock full of knowledge.

Friday was "Dictionary Day" at Brownville Elementary and other area schools.

It's part of a national effort to get the books in the hands of third-graders everywhere, to boost kids' vocabularies and set them off on a path for creative thinking.

Folks from Valley Grange of Guilford help raise money and bring dictionaries to students at schools from Monson to Milo every year.

By lunchtime Friday, everyone had a favorite new discovery.

"The population of Maine," says Katelyn. "Awesome!" says Brooke.

"I remember when I first started doing this I was worried that they'd be bored out of their minds, because they have video games, and the virtual reality stuff, but they love it. They just get so excited about a simple book-- and what's in it," says Walter Boomsma, with Valley Grange.

He says he thinks one of the reasons the kids get so excited-- the independence of being able to look things up for themselves.

Boomsma tells us he's seen students hang on to their dictionaries well into middle school.

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