My Plans for World Read Aloud Day 2013

World Read Aloud Day 2013 will take place in one month on Wednesday, March 6. World Read Aloud Day is an event from the folks at LitWorld, and it is a global initiative to draw attention to the prevelance of illiteracy worldwide. Did you know that almost 10% of the world's inhabitants are unable to read? Last year, hundreds of thousands of people celebrated the joys of reading by participating in 65 countries all over the world. My library will be among the many, many sites celebrating literacy this year on March 6.

I'm planning an all-day celebration of reading at my library to mark World Read Aloud Day. On the half hour of every hour that the library is open (9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and so on through 8:30 p.m.), one of my colleagues or I will announce over the PA system that it is World Read Aloud Day. We'll invite anyone in the library who is interested to join us in Picture Book City, my library's children's area, for a read-aloud story to celebrate literacy. I'm choosing a wide variety of books for my twelve read-alouds: classics, new favorites, non-fiction, poetry, and award-winners will all be represented. We'll share one story every hour, and after the story is over, participants will hear a quick world literacy fact and be asked to write their names on colorful die-cut books. Each cardstock book will be displayed in the entryway of the library. My hope is that we'll have a rainbow of books with names on them in the library entryway to show just how much we support worldwide literacy.

Are you interested in planning your own World Read Aloud Day event? Looking for some tips? Head over to the official website to download activities, an event kit, and the event badge. If you've got Skype capabilities in your facility, you may want to connect with authors and illustrators for your event; author Kate Messner is compiling a list of book folks who are interested in virtual visits to classrooms and libraries, and she'll have full info on her blog later this month. Don't forget to register your event on the LitWorld website, too.

I hope you'll consider sharing the joys of reading and bringing awareness to global literacy by celebrating World Read Aloud Day on March 6!