Elementary students in Anne Arundel might help set a new record in reading as part of a nationwide program designed to promote childhood literacy.

Read for the Record - an annual campaign designed to break the world record for the number of adults and children reading the same book on the same day - is appealing to young children for a variety of reasons, area reading teachers say.

"Primary children love big numbers," Mary Ellen Mulvany, reading teacher at Fort Smallwood Elementary, said with a chuckle. "They're having a ball. It's a community project, and we're a community of readers."

On Thursday, students in 68 county...