How Will You Celebrate National Readathon Day?

Don’t forget to celebrate National Readathon Day on May 21, 2016.  In what is becoming an annual event, the second such one is being held by The American Library Association and Penguin Random House.

So how can you support this event?

National Readathon Day seeks to raise awareness and funds to support literacy.  It’s observed in schools, libraries, bookstores, and on social media (#readathon2016).

Publishers Weekly said this year’s event “is being presented by ALA Libraries Transform Campaign, and will benefit ALA’s Every Child Ready to Read Initiative, a program that supports the early literacy development of children from birth to age five.”

Penguin Random House announced it is launching Library Awards for Innovation – where libraries across the country will have the opportunity to apply for grant awards in support of creating the most innovative community-based programs this year.

How does one participate in a readathon?

Start reading – and don’t stop!

Events are being held where someone is publicly reading throughout the day.  At a school of 500 kids, each one could just stand up to read aloud for a minute and you could rotate the kids to fill more than eight hours of reading.  What a beautiful sound that must make.

What we need is for:

·         More people to donate books.

·         More people to volunteer at a library or literacy center.

·         Adults to keep reading to young children.

·         Parents to encourage their kids to read daily.

·         An increase in government funds to support reading and education.

Tens of millions of American adults are illiterate.  The new generation should be fully literate and in order to make sure everyone, including immigrants, the learning disabled, and those who grow up in an economically challenged environment gets a head start, we must all pitch in.

Maybe many of us take reading for granted, especially those of us who inhale books daily, but too many of our youth struggle to even read at grade level. We can’t raise a generation of dummies when society demands it be the most technologically advanced generation.  New jobs are not in the coal mines or factories – they require brains and creative thinking. Help a kid read today and he or she may solve our problems tomorrow.

2016 Book Marketing & Book Publicity Toolkit

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/2016-book-marketing-book-publicity.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2016