James Patterson's ReadKiddoRead encourages librarians to promote reading with $2500 award

James Patterson's ReadKiddoRead website has partnered with EarlyWord.com and Asset-Based Thinking for Teens (ABT) to provide a contest that will award $2,500 to a librarian who proposes the best "new and inspired" plans for a school reading program. A January 7, 2009  PRNewswire press release explains that the program is designed to counter the current budget cuts that have caused schools nationwide to downsize and, in some cases, completely eliminate their libraries.

Patterson, whose latest Alex Cross mystery series book, I, Alex Cross, was released in November 2009, wants people to understand the role libraries and librarians play in promoting childhood reading. "Librarians are not a luxury," says Patterson. "They are a necessity. This contest will do a little bit of good, but for the long run, we've got to recognize that our children won't be given any real education without a librarian in their lives."

Librarians may enter the contest by following the instructions on the EarlyWord website. Entries must be submitted by January 15th, 2010. Ten finalists will be chosen, and the grand winner will be announced on June 15, 2010. 

Patterson, who has also written two children's series, Maximum Ride and Daniel X, designed his ReadKiddoRead website to encourage a love of reading in children by providing them with books they like rather than books others consider to be good for them. In November 2009 Barnes & Noble began a special promotion involving 21 of the site's more than 300 recommended books, a testimony to ReadKiddoRead's effectiveness in achieving its goal.

ReadKiddoRead.com. (PRNewsFoto/James Patterson's ReadKiddoRead.com)