Today is Family Literacy Day across the country, but the Southwest Literacy Committee decided to celebrate it a day early.

On Friday, the Southwest Literacy Committee organized events in Swift Current, Leader, and Maple Creek, where kids took part in a reading activity at the local libraries that featured them being read the graphic novel the Lunch Lady.

The Lunch Lady is a ten-part graphic novel series that follows the adventures of a school lunch lady who fights against crime.

Andrea McCrimmon, Manager of the Swift Current Branch Library and a member of the Southwest Literacy Committee, says they chose to read a graphic novel because they are a great way to get kids who are reluctant readers to get involved.

"Graphic novels are great for getting kids really excited about reading," she said. "They're also good if kids are having any challenges reading because they can use the images to figure out what's going on. It's really our goal to get kids reading for enjoyment for at least 15 minutes a day, and we thought that having a graphic novel that's part of a whole series is a great way to encourage kids to read for fun."

She added that after reading the book, the kids created their own graphic novel superhero.

In Swift Current, the event saw over 100 Grade 3 students from multiple schools in the city take part in the activity.

McCrimmon said that the kids didn't walk away empty-handed, as they received free copies of the graphic novel to read at home.

"Every kid that came today got to take home their very own copy of the Lunch Lady and The League of Librarians," she said. "We've purchased several copies of the whole series so that kids can come back and read all ten, and if you read them all, then you get a prize."

McCrimmon added that they had a fantastic day and she is hoping that they got kids to start reading for fun