Celebrities To Read For Kids

The Reading, Writing, It’s Exciting! Program (RWE) is hosting a reading and literacy event at the Westside Pavilion Barnes & Noble (10850 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064) on June 4th & 7th to promote literacy and to shine a spotlight on how important it is for parents to read with their children.

To help ensure this message is heard, the organization has invited various celebrities to read a book (Dr. Seuss or other) for twenty minutes with one of the children at the event (or to their own children). RWE hopes the celebrity participation will help inspire other parents to undertake this all-so-important activity with their own children. Literacy experts have all stated that if parents read to, and with, their children from a young age, it would solve many of our literacy problems.

Celebrities confirmed include Scott L. Schwartz (Ocean’s 11, 13, 13, The Scorpion King), Sean Kanan (The Young & The Restless, General Hospital), Aura Imbarus (Celebrity book author “Out Of The Transylvania Night”), Paula Labaredas (The Critic, Showgirl), Nancy La Scala (Species 2, In The Cut), Valery Ortiz (ABC’s Family Lounge), David Fralick (The Story Of Bonnie & Clyde, The Young & The Restless “Larry Warton”), Tommy Hobson (Nickelodeon’s “The Fresh Beat Band”), Tanya Chisholm (Nickelodeon’s “Big Time Rush”), Catalina Rodriquez (Watch Over Me, Dexter, Cougars) and Zach Callison (Hannah Montana, Sophia the Great).

RWE is a nonprofit literacy program designed to improve the reading and writing skills of at-risk children. They do this by providing one-to-one writing mentors throughout the school year for kids who are chosen by their teachers to participate. At the end of the school year, the kids get to read one of their stories at a Barnes & Noble, and then watch in special VIP seats as actors perform them for the audience.

The reason for their program is that research shows that if children aren’t writing and reading at their grade level by the end of second grade, they almost never catch up. Further research has also shown that as many as 80% of those kids eventually drop out of high school, are unemployed, are in prison or join gangs. And how accurate are those numbers? Several states actually base their future prison building plans on them! What’s the situation like in Los Angeles? There are over 45,000 second grade students in L.A., and only 41% of them are proficient in writing and reading. We must help all of them…

Event Reading Schedule:

SATURDAY JUNE 4
2:00 – 3:00 PM: Kindergartners and 1st graders read stories
3:00 – 4:00 PM: The RWE kids have their stories performed by actors.
4:00 – 5:00 PM: Celebs read a book with one of their kids.

TUESDAY JUNE 7
5:30 – 6:30 PM: The RWE kids have their stories performed by actors
6:30 – 7:30 PM: 2nd and 3rd graders read stories they’ve written.
7:30 – 8:30PM: 4th and 5th graders read stories they’ve written.

Location: Westside Pavilion Barnes & Noble (10850 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064)

More information can be found here.