Young Bradford bookworms were going on line today as part of a scheme enabling children around the world to chat to their favourite authors.

More than 300,000 pupils from as far away as Japan are taking part in The Read In! with over one hundred students at Salt Grammar School and Dixons City Technology College in Bradford among those hoping to get their questions answered by the authors.

Writers from participating countries are taking it in turns to go on the Internet through the day with British authors Tim Bowler - who penned the Carnegie Medal-winning Riverboy - and Yorkshire-based Michael Hardcastle in the hot seat between 2 and 3pm.

Mr Bowler will answer questions via a computer terminal at his Devon home while sports-based fiction writer Mr Hardcastle will be at Dixons itself.

Lynne Johnson, librarian at Salt Grammar and a Read In! volunteer coordinator for the scheme, was assistant librarian at Dixons when the college took part for the first time last year and was so impressed she got the Baildon school involved this time.

She said: "It's an annual event which started seven years ago with two primary schools in America talking to each other on the Internet.

"Since then it's grown and grown and this year there'll be 311,000 children taking part from 12 different countries, including the USA, South Africa, Australia and Japan.

"Most of those taking part are still in America with only ten schools in Britain - it's catching on slowly over here but hopefully more will take part next year.

"The aim is not only to encourage reading but to get the students to really think about what they've read and the people behind the books.''

Lynn Barrett, librarian at Dixons, said: "It was really successful last year - the students enjoyed having immediate contact with the authors and finding out about the whole creative process.

"Taking part in an on-line forum is very exciting for them because they not only see their questions being answered but those posed by students on the other side of the world as well.''

Schools interested in taking part in next year's event can contact Lynne Johnson at Salt Grammar on 01274 415551. Meanwhile The Read In! can be accessed via www.readin.org

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