Read to Succeed Buffalo is going to try to break a world record today. They're joining in a nationwide effort to get the biggest number of children reading the same book on the same day, or being read to from the book. The idea is to stress the importance of literacy for youngsters. The book in question? "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats, a 1963 Caldecott Award winner and the first full-color picture book to feature a small hero who is black.

     "We want to break our own local record," says Helene Kramer, executive director of Read to Succeed Buffalo. The magic number is 14,000, who read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" last year. Guest readers include Mayor Byron W. Brown, Sheriff Tim Howard, State Sen. Antoine Thompson, local poet Sherry Robbins, local writer Ntare Ali Gault, Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, family court judges, attorneys, media personalities and college students.