Check Out These Upcoming Literacy Events

NEA Read Across America on March 3rd Click here for more

Check out the Read Across America Web site for plenty of ideas to help your program share the importance of mastering basic reading skills. America’s largest reading celebration takes place each year on the birth date of the author Dr. Seuss. Just in time for this year’s event, an animated digital version of Horton Hears A Who! will be available for free. The National Education Association site has pages for parents, educators, and events in each state. There’s also an online toolkit with activity ideas, media kits, PR tools, and a calendar with yearlong events.

International Women’s Day on March 8th Click here for more

Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate are women.

International Women’s Day has been observed since 1911, beginning in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, as a rally campaigning for the woman’s right to work, vote, and hold public office. That same year, the “Triangle Fire” in New York City where 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants, lost their lives, became the focal point for the United States involvement in the IWD events. IWD is an official holiday in many Russian and Asian countries, celebrated much like Mother’s Day in the United States. There are currently 192 IWD 2008 events listed from 25 different countries.

UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day on April 23rd Click here for more

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.

Why April 23? In the year 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died! It is also the date of birth or death of other international authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. So UNESCO chose this date to encourage a worldwide pleasure of reading.