Here at LitWorld we are getting ready to celebrate our 5th annual World Read Aloud Day on March 5, 2014. In less than two months, communities all over the world will come together to share stories with one another.

The act of reading aloud is simple, joyful and fun, but it is also a powerful way to build literacy skills. More importantly, reading aloud to someone (or to a group of people) helps cultivate a lifelong love of reading. For some this will be the first time that they have felt included in a community of readers and writers, and the first time that they realize that reading feels good and the right to read and to learn from stories belongs to them.

Last year over one million people celebrated World Read Aloud Day and we plan to make this year's celebration even bigger! We have registered participants in almost 300 cities and we need your help to spread the word about World Read Aloud Day. Below is a snapshot of our WRAD map (click the image to see the full map in Google Maps). If you don't see your city on the map, or if you have friends or family in cities with no WRAD marker reach out to them to invite them into our global reading club. We need all voices to rally together to spread the power of story.

All it takes is three simple steps:

1. Register your participation in the WRAD movement.

2. Download our free activity kits and spread the word on social media (see sample posts here).

3. Read aloud on March 5th!