Menlo Park kids “Read for the Record”

The children’s book, “Not Norman: A Goldfish Story” by Kelly Bennett, was read aloud at six sessions at the Menlo Park Library on Thursday, Oct. 22, during “Read for the Record,” a national campaign to break the world record for most people reading the same book on the same day.

Sponsored by Jumpstart, a national nonprofit that supports young children’s literacy and language skills, “Read for the Record” aims to help young kids boost their language and literacy skills, particularly by working to narrow what is called the “word gap.”

The “word gap” describes the scenario in which some children from low-income families start school at a disadvantage because they may have heard up to 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers by the time they enter kindergarten.