Bat City Comic Professionals invites the community to celebrate literacy with three comic-themed events happening in the upcoming weeks. Their Teaching with Comics Educator Seminar (April 27 at 6PM), Academic Avengers’ Reading Academy (April 29 at 12PM), and Free Comic Book Day (May 6 at 11AM), all feature one key way to get young people excited about reading - comic books. “As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Bat City Comic Professionals is always striving to drive community engagement and education through comic books, ” said Shannon Live, President and Director of Outreach at Bat City. “Studies have shown that comic books are a valuable tool for students who are English language learners, dyslexic, or reluctant readers. Not only that, comic books have been proven to teach more unique words per thousand than adult novels and have an uncanny ability to improve inference, evidence, and comprehension skills in readers of all levels.” The upcoming activities are just a few of the calendar of events that Bat City offers to help young people improve their reading, writing, art, and imagination skills. Bat City offers monthly kids’ book clubs, teen chatback days, and writing workshops for students who want to create their own comics. All of which are free to the general public. But these particular events are a part of something even larger. “We are so excited to bring these next few events to life” said Live. “Our Teaching with Comics seminar and Academic Avengers day are both a part of the international Remake Learning Days festival, which has over 200 events in the Suncoast area alone. It’s great to see how active our community is at inspiring STEAM and literacy education for families in the area. As for Free Comic Book Day, the fact that comic book stores all over the country hand out free books is just such a thrill. You can see hundreds of new readers born that day and it’s absolutely beautiful.” For more information regarding any of the upcoming events you can contact Shannon Live at contact@batcity.org or check out the event listings on Bat City’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/batcitycomicbooks.