Magazine and Literacy Leaders Mark Children’s Magazine Month This October 2005 with Sadness and Resolve to Help Children in Schools and Shelters

The nation's top literacy and children's magazine leaders - the Association of Educational Publishers, the International Reading Association, and the Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project - today marked Children's Magazine Month this October with a commitment to mobilize magazine mentors across the nation to send children's magazines to schools, shelters and other community literacy programs to support children and families reading together. A special focus will be extended to help children displaced by Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, as well as by domestic violence and poverty.

Princeton, NJ (PRWEB) October 11, 2005 -- Education, literacy, and magazine leaders are marking this year’s fourth anniversary of Children’s Magazine Month in October by mobilizing magazine mentors, nationwide to leverage the power of children’s magazines to support reading and literacy programs for children and families.

“The theme for Children’s Magazine Month is “Celebrate Families Reading Together,” said John Mennell, co-manager of the event. “This year, we mark our celebration with great sadness in the wake of hundreds of thousands of lives, and families, and communities shattered by Hurricane Katrina. However, we have an even greater responsibility and resolve to help rebuild by mobilizing mentors to support children and families left homeless and on the move to shelters and new schools. This year, Children’s Magazine Month will be a catalyst to marshal magazine resources for community-based literacy and reading programs. We are reaching out across our stakeholder organizations, and to consumers and businesses, nationwide, to rally a broad coalition of support,” he added.

“We founded Children’s Magazine Month to spotlight and to celebrate the wonderful role that children’s magazines have played in schools and for generation after generation of families reading together,” said Charlene Gaynor, Executive Director of the Association of Educational Publishers. “Children’s magazines are wonderfully colorful, topical, adventurous, and fun. They catch, then hold a child's attention, encouraging students to want to read, so they can do well in school and succeed in life. This year, we have a special and compelling responsibility to reach out to support the schools and libraries that are rebuilding and to support the children and families displaced by Hurricane Katrina and other devastating circumstance,” she added.

“The challenge of fighting illiteracy is compounded when families are dislocated by natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina or last year’s tsunami,” said Alan E. Farstrup, Executive Director of the International Reading Association. “Literacy thrives in homes where reading materials are readily available and enjoyed by the whole family. For families living in poverty, this has always been a challenge, one that puts children at a disadvantage – they are less able to do well in school and more likely to drop out. As adults, they are less likely to find good paying jobs and less able to teach their own children. The number of low-income families affected by Hurricane Katrina makes this year’s focus of Children’s Magazine Month more timely and compelling that ever before,” he added.

“Few treasures brighten a child's eyes, smile and intellect like a magazine subscription,” said John Mennell, Founding Director of the Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project. “With computers and the Internet playing such a large role in shaping the experiences of young people, this effort is vital. A wealth of information awaits children – whether on the back of a cereal box or surfing the World Wide Web, a child must know how to read to get it. As an organization, we are especially focused on reaching children and families torn apart by hurricanes and other natural disasters, domestic violence, and poverty,” he explained.

Children’s Magazine Month (http://childmagmonth.org) is a nationwide literacy initiative intended to spotlight children's magazines as a valuable literacy resource for teachers, librarians, children, parents, and others literacy agents. Children’s Magazine Month was founded by the Association of Educational Publishers in 2002 and is co-managed with the Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project.

Founded in 1895, the Association of Educational Publishers (http://www.edpress.org/) promotes supplemental educational resources as essential learning tools. AEP does this by facilitating communication among key interest groups in the world of educational publishing, such as educators, policy makers, educational foundations and associations, businesses, and the education media. By providing timely information and practical professional development, AEP enables publishing professionals to better serve the community. Children’s Magazine publishers make up a segment of AEP’s membership.

The International Reading Association (http://www.reading.org/) was founded in 1956 as a professional organization for those involved in teaching reading to learners of all ages, with over 80,000 members in 100 countries, dedicated to promoting high levels of literacy for all by: Improving the quality of reading instruction; disseminating research and information about reading; and encouraging the lifetime reading habit.

The Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project (http://MagazineLiteracy.org/) helps kids learn to read and build their self-esteem by organizing collaborative magazine industry, business and community partnerships that provide much needed magazines to schools, and community literacy programs. The project strives to unleash the awesome potential of children’s magazines as a powerful literacy resource for teachers and literacy agents.

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