When Pretty Faces Just Aren’t Enough

Yeoh and Dr Sheikh Muszaphar are not selling cars or soft drinks – we need more than just a pretty face to promote reading. We need reading ambassadors who read, and who are already actively involved in promoting literacy and reading.

Pretty faces aren't enough when it comes to choosing reading ambassadors says Daphne Lee in StarMag, picking up the debate :

The United States has a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, while Britain has a Children’s Laureate. Both posts acknowledge the importance of encouraging children to read.... An important criterion in the selection of the National Ambassador is his/her “ability to relate to children”. The ambassador must also be able to communicate “well and regularly” with young people. And both positions require respected authors or illustrators.

But before we should even be thinking about such a position, she says, we have to create better access to books, and children should be read to on a daily basis by their teachers. (This is for sure something that helped me to fall in love with books.)