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Thriller giant James Patterson will visit the UK in April to promote an "extreme reading" competition aimed at getting children reading together with their fathers. The James Patterson Extreme Reading Challenge, run in partnership with the National Literacy Trust's Reading Champions initiative, will offer the prize of a trip to a space centre in Sweden for a photograph of child and adult reading together in the most unusual location they can think of.
The initiative came directly from Patterson himself and will be run with more than 3,000 UK schools. Patterson said: "As a writer, and also as a father, I'm delighted to be working with the National Literacy Trust in really encouraging kids to discover the love of reading. I've been actively involved in getting kids to enjoy books in America and it's great to be able to help bring this message to the UK."
Sarah Osborne, project manager of the NLT Reading Champions initiative, said it was "very exciting" to be working with Patterson, describing the challenge as "a great way to make reading fun and to encourage children to pick up a book."
The Extreme Reading Challenge will be launched as a World Book Day campaign in March 2009 and the winner will be announced at a reception held at the London Book Fair on 20th April.