By Veronica Martinez, Worlds of Words Educational Guide Intern

Get lost in a good book with the Worlds of Words Center’s Reading Ambassadors as they host their 3rd-annual Read-a-thon! The middle and high school reading ambassadors encourage booklovers of all ages to join them for focused reading paired with fun prompts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 9 @WOWTeenAmbassadors on Instagram. There is no physical location for the Read-a-thon, so participants can join from anywhere they would like to read!

Teen Reading Ambassadors will include the young adult fantasy novel, Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer on their reading lists, while the Middle School Reading Ambassadors‘ focus on The Plentiful Darkness, by Heather Kassner. Read-a-thon participants can read these books or any books they are dying to read—tackle Mt. TBR (to be read) or ignore it all together! The titles on everyone’s reading list will be shared on Instagram as a way to build reading lists!

“Read-a-thons are so fun because we get reading prompts every hour where we answer questions about the book we’re reading as a group,” says Echo Sierra, a Teen Reading Ambassador. “Reading is fun on its own, but having little stuff thrown in helps visualize the story a bit more!”

The Reading Ambassador Program is administered through the Worlds of Words Center of Literacies and Literatures in the UArizona College of Education and provides middle and high school students a college experience reading and discussing young adult literature and interacting with published authors under the direction of faculty with expertise in literacy, education, library science and marketing. On May 7, the ambassadors will meet Meyer and Kassner in person and celebrate the completion of a year in the program at separate events that are also free and open to the public.

“I love being an ambassador because it has opened up what genres of books I like to read. I also get to meet amazing authors and learn more about how they wrote their story and the little elements they throw in to include their real-life events,” Echo continues. “I’ve also been able to meet a group of people who love reading like me!”

The Reading Ambassadors welcome everyone to participate in some deep reading and engage with the prompts to earn the possibility of winning a book to be picked up on May 7 at one of the author events. For more information, contact wow@arizona.edu and follow the ambassadors on Instagram @wowteenambassadors. The WOW Reading Ambassador Program is always open to new members of middle or high school age. For more information or to apply, visit wowlit.org/teen-reading-ambassadors.

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• Themes: Middle School Reading Ambassadors, Read-a-thon, Teen Reading Ambassadors
• Descriptors: WOW News