Children's Literary Expert Coming to Central Elementary

As the Executive Director and founder of LitWorld, Pam Allyn is part of a global literacy movement whose goal is to promote literacy and help provide the world’s most vulnerable children with reading skills that can transform their lives.

The children’s literacy expert, advocate, and author of 10 books is coming to on Wednesday to speak to parents and teachers about techniques they can use to encourage reading for boys.

“I think we haven’t done a really good job for boys,” Allyn said during a phone interview last week.

Too often the reading material that boys choose for themselves is criticized as not being challenging enough, Allyn said.

Allyn said the reading choices offered to boys at school often fails to stoke their passion as readers, resulting in too many boys who do not regard themselves as readers in an academic context.

“I’m not convinced we are doing as much as we could be doing,” said Allyn.

Allyn said boys who may enjoy reading comic books, graphic novels, video game manuals and game strategy guides often receive a message that those types of reading materials are something that serious students would put aside in favor of chapter books or novels.

During Wednesday’s talk Allyn will help show community members how they can provide a wide range of reading material to help develop a passion for reading in boys.

While Allyn feels it is equally important to stoke a passion for reading in both girls and boys, she has found that boys in the US seem to be the ones most at risk when it comes to reading.

“I really feel literacy is the key to opening doors,” Allyn said.

Allyn’s passion and work for literacy has led to her receiving honors such as the James Patterson Page Turner Award for bringing literacy to underserved populations.

Allyn said one of the things that drives her is the belief that literacy is the tool people use to gain information and become empowered.

“I hope I can share that with many children throughout the world because they really deserve it,” Allyn said.

Allyn is also the Executive Director of LitLife. LitLife, which was founded in 2002, helps improve literacy education in schools nationwide.

Pam Allyn’s talk at Central Elementary School is being sponsored by Central Elementary School PTA Parent Education and is free to parents of students in the .  

The event, “Books, Boys & Beyond: How to Engage Boys in Reading in Ways That Will Change Their Lives,” starts at 7 p.m. and will be in Central’s multi-use room.