READING BEGINS WITH LEARNING TO READ

   In my last post, I talked about the need for diversity in children's literature. Today, I'm going to back up a step — it doesn't matter much if books have diverse content if children cannot read them. Sept. 8 was International Literacy Day and Grammarly.com has a literacy campaign dedicated to supporting literacy around the world and putting books into the hands of children in need. The following infographic from Grammarly.com shows the staggering statistics — 757 million adults around the world can't read or write; 124 million children or adolescents do not attend school. In the U.S. alone, 32 million adults are illiterate.
   Help fight illiteracy: share this infographic on your blog and Grammarly will donate $10 in your name to one of these three literacy-promoting charities of your choice: 

Reading Is Fundamental
First Book
ProLiteracy

To get the embed code, check out Grammarly's blog post. If you share the infographic, please attribute it to Grammarly with a link to https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker. Once you've published the graphic on your site, drop Grammarly an email to let them know which charity you've chosen and they'll make the donation on your behalf. 



   I've joined First Books as an Author in Action. When I receive my personal url from them, I can use it to help promote their cause to get books into the hands of underprivileged children and to help programs and schools serving disadvantaged kids get free books by linking them to First Books.
   The best part of being an author is when I get to read my books to kids and see their faces light up with delight when they hear a story. Every child deserves to experience that.