Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News

Every year on the same day millions of children hear the same book all across the globe.This year the group is reading Llama Llama Red Pajama, a book about a baby lama getting scared after going to bed.

Though it may sound frivolous, there is serious message behind the storybook tale. It is part of Jumpstart’s “Read for the Record” campaign and it calls for an end to early education achievement gap.

Jumpstarts’ Senior Program Director Atalaya Sergi says that the campaign is an opportunity to share with a national audience ways to address disparities in early childhood education such as, “the importance of literacy and not only reading with children but spending time in conversation and building their literacy skills.”

According to Jumpstart, low-income kids, such as many areas in South LA, are at risk of school failure before they start kindergarten.Jumpstart anticipates reading to 2 million children today.

Since 2006, Jumpstart has read with more than 5 million children and raised $6.2 million.