April Blogging from A to Z Challenge: literacy

Monday, September 1, 2014

National Literacy Month and Happy Labor Day

Co-creator of Spider-Man, the Hulk, Xmen, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four and Honorary Chair of Library Card Sign-up Month Stan Lee.

September is National Literacy Month and Library Card Sign-Up Month. And as a writer I'm interested in raising awareness about this issue. After all, I write books, and what's the use of doing that if people can't read them? Here are some stats that I discovered when doing research for my latest novel in which my main character is barely literate.

A 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) revealed that 90 million Americans read at basic and below basic levels. READ MORE
The anual U.S. cost for low literacy is mind boggling: 80 billion in lost worker productivity, 225 billion lost to unemployment benefits, lost taxes and crime. Literacy Partners
L.A. county, population 7,000+ has 33% of its people who are lacking basic literacy Visalia Times READ MORE
2 million New York City residents are functionally illiterate (25%) READ MORE .
32 million (14%) of U.S. adults can't read and 774 million people worldwide can't read. READ MORE

If any A to Zers are interested in joining the cause here's the LINK to my post about Writers Supporting Literacy.

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And now LABOR DAY!

Labor Day has been with us for 132 years. The U.S. celebrated the first one on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. Then in 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday.

Over the years, it's had it's poster girl and other spirited patriotic images to communicate the U.S. Can Do spirit.

Here's the famous Rosie The Riveter that was popular WWII.