What would your life be like if you couldn’t read or write? What signposts in the journey of your life would you have missed? Apart from the necessity of reading and writing, it’s hard to imagine what quality of life would be missed by not having books to read, whether for work or for pleasure.

So it is shocking to think that there are 774 million people in the world today who cannot read or write, and many of them are children.

Wednesday 9th March is our chance to come together in support of the World Literacy movement for World Read Aloud Day. Litworld.org is rallying the world to take part in its mammoth read-aloud-athon, aiming for 774 million minutes of children, or indeed adults, being read to. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to start tallying how many minutes you are spending reading aloud and to how many people – whether at home, in school or at your local library – or on a bus or a train, or in the park – in fact, anywhere! Multiply the number of minutes by the number of people listening – then on March 9th you will be able to log your total on LitWorld’s website – and we will also post the direct link on the day.

For confirmation of the power of reading aloud, watch the video on LitWorld’s homepage - then go get a book and start reading to anyone and everyone you can. You can register here or sign up on Facebook. Follow events on LitWorld’s WRAD blog here or on Twitter, and join in via the Twitter hashtags #litworld and/or #literacy. Take a look at our Books at Bedtime and other reading aloud posts past and future for some great readaloud ideas – and we’d love to hear what you’re reading too, so do drop by and let us know! Now get reading – every minute really does count!

Posted by: Marjorie | This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 at 10:18 am and is filed under Eventful World, Reading Aloud, World Literacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Tags: 774 million, LitWorld, World Literacy, World Read Aloud Day, World Read Aloud Day 2011, WRAD, WRAD 2011