In the age of YouTube, reality TV, and text messaging, do parents still read to their kids any more?
Apparently not, and it’s a cause for concern.
“We are in the midst of a reading crisis in America,” wrote Carol H. Rasco, the president and chief executive officer of the non-profit Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), in The Washington Post April 22.
Rasco goes on to cite statistics that reveal more than a third of public-school fourth graders “cannot read at even the most basic level.” According to the RIF website, there’s only one book for every 300 children in underserved communities in the US.
To combat this reading crisis, Reading Is Fundamental has launched an ambitious web campaign called “Book People Unite.” The web initiative includes the website Book People Unite; a snazzy video featuring music by The Roots, Regina Spektor, Jack Black, and Coldplay; the Twitter hashtag #bookpeopleunite; and a web pledge.
Ernestine Benedict, vice president for marketing and communications at RIF, told the New York Times the slogan is to remind people “there’s strength in numbers,” and hopes the public service announcements will become “our new national anthem for reading.”
Like most web campaigns, and ironically for RIF, the most successful component is their video of book characters singing, which at press time had collected more than 50,000 views since it was uploaded April 12. (According to Topsy, 1,251 people have tweeted the hashtag #bookpeopleunite.)
Photo via YouTube
