Chicago Kids To Take Part In Reading Record

CHICAGO (CBS) - In early October, and if you're a full grown adult, you might think it's way too early to start talking about snow.

But a lot of people in Chicago and across the country will be reading about snow on Thursday, as they try to break a world record for the number of people reading the same book in the same day.

Jumpstart, a group dedicated to reading, has launched a nationwide "Read for the Record" campaign to break the world record by encouraging people to read the children's book, The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats.

Locally, Chicago Public Schools chief administrative officer Robert Runcie will read the book out loud to more than 200 kids at 9:15 a.m. at the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St.

Throughout the day, children will read the book in numerous public and private school classrooms, and Chicago Public Library branches.

Also Thursday, the Kohl Children's Museum, at 2100 Patriot Blvd in Glenview, will host a reading of The Snowy Day for more than 60 children from John B. Murphy Elementary School on the city's Northwest Side.

Elsewhere in the Chicago area, the Pearson Foundation, a partner in organizing the event, is donating books to all pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes at the Oswego Central Unified School District No. 308 in Kendall County, the Special School District of Lake County, the Winthrop Harbor Public Schools, and Schaumburg School District No. 54, where Schaumburg Village President Al Larson will read at one local school.

The foundation is also donating books to the Rockford Public Schools and the U-46 School District in Elgin.

And kids and adults alike can read The Snowy Day online and take part in setting the record.

The Snowy Day was published in 1962, and won a Caldecott Award the following year for Keats' illustrations. It tells the story of a boy named Peter who explores and plays in his neighborhood after a snowfall.

Keats, who died in 1983, is one of the most influential and celebrated children's authors and illustrators of the 20th century.