91´«Ã½

NEW YORK - Penguin Random House, which is partnering with the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½) for this year’s , announced today that readers everywhere will be able to contribute to #Readathon2016, which will take place on Saturday, May 21, 2016, through its newly launched Donate campaign on Facebook.

All Facebook users will be able to make a commitment to early childhood literacy through the Donate button now available on the , which seamlessly facilitates swift and secure online contributions to National Readathon Day on the Facebook platform. Users will also be able to share their love of reading by updating their Facebook profile picture with a soon-to-be-released custom National Readathon Day profile picture frame, which will be available on the and Facebook pages.

National Readathon Day is a fundraising and social media awareness campaign dedicated to promoting children’s literacy and reading at any age. Leading up to and during the Readathon, readers everywhere will share their love of reading on social media using the hashtag #Readathon2016, and raise funds for early childhood literacy through 91´«Ã½’s Every Child Ready to Read initiative, helping programs in public libraries nationwide. The #Readathon2016 Facebook Donate campaign enhances and unifies these core goals, enabling any Facebook user to make a commitment to Readathon and the 91´«Ã½ with one click, and to join together with friends and fellow readers around a common cause.

All readers are encouraged to join National Readathon Day by using the hashtag #Readathon2016, to visit to make a contribution, and to update their profile picture with the National Readathon profile picture frame.

Libraries, bookstores, schools and other community gathering places across the country are planning Readathon events. Visitors to the National Readathon Day will find ideas about how to host a party or locate the nearest National Readathon Day event.

Visit for more information.

About the 91´«Ã½, Libraries Transform, and Every Child Ready to Read ® @ your library®: The 91´«Ã½ is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 58,000 members in academic, public, school, government, and special libraries. The mission of the 91´«Ã½ is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

Libraries Transform is designed to increase public awareness of the value, impact and services provided by libraries and library professionals. The campaign showcases the transformative nature of today's libraries in creating individual opportunity and highlights the critical role libraries play in the digital age.

Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library® is a national research-based program, developed in 2001 and updated in 2011, that empowers library professionals and other early childhood allies to build relationships with parents in their communities and model parent-child engagement activities to build early literacy skills. The initiative makes the road to school readiness and success less mysterious for parents and more fun for children while incorporating the latest early literacy research and strategies for developing pre-reading skills. The initiative’s core message speaks directly to any busy parent: “Talk, sing, read, write, and play with your children!”

Penguin Random House is dedicated to nourishing a universal passion for reading as the world’s first truly global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and South Africa; DK Worldwide; and Random House’s companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Central America, and its Portuguese-language company in Portugal. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.