Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, District 1, will discuss boys' literacy at the Minnesota Twins game this Saturday, July 19, according to a news release. Jon Scieszka — children's author, founder of the www.guysread.com [1] national literacy initiative, and the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature — is flying in from New York to "make some noise for boys" at the Twins game on July 20.

Five thousand copies of Scieszka's various "Time Warp Trio" books will be distributed to boys and girls up to age 14 at all gates before the July 20 game. Scieszka will sign them before the game and through the third inning at Gate F, the release said.

Although Hennepin County Library has offered boys' book clubs for many years, the clubs were renamed Guys Read book clubs in 2004, inspired by Scieszka's program. Now Hennepin County's libraries in Minneapolis are offering Guys Read book clubs, too.

This summer, with grant support from Best Buy's Children's Foundation, Highland Bank, and other funders, the Library Foundation of Hennepin County is sponsoring 44 Guys Read book clubs for boys of various ages. More than 400 boys have registered for the clubs.

Scieszka's web-based literacy program advocates for improving boys' literacy. When Scieszka was an elementary school teacher, he noticed that boys stopped reading for fun as they grew older and that girls were more likely to continue reading. GUYSREAD.com encourages adults to motivate boys to read by giving them materials they like to read (such as outdoor adventures, sports stories, humor, fantasy, and non-fiction), not materials others think they should read, and calls for men to step up as reading role models so boys see that reading is a masculine activity.

Scieszka is author of more than 25 books, including "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs," "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales," "Math Curse" and many other children's books.

In January, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington appointed Scieszka the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature "to raise national awareness of the importance of young people's literature…" http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-001.html [3]

Many book clubs for girls also are being held this summer at Hennepin County libraries. In all, more than 100 book clubs for boys and girls are scheduled.

For more information: www.hclib.org [4]