VALDOSTA — The Valdosta Daily Times presents its third family story series with a new Breakfast Serials tale starting with Saturday’s edition.

“Reading The Sky” is written by Avi, who wrote “The Secret School,” the first Breakfast Serials story presented last year by this newspaper and Valdosta Technical College.

The Valdosta Daily Times opted to run the Breakfast Serials stories in response to surveys showing readers wanted fictional stories included in the newspaper.

“This is an opportunity to get more young people involved in reading The Valdosta Daily Times and providing a series of different types of stories for our readers,” said J.H. “Sandy” Sanders, the newspaper’s publisher.

The Valdosta Daily Times is committed to bringing readers several Breakfast Serials stories throughout 2007.

Val-Tech continues its partnership in sponsoring the 13 weekly installments of this new serialized story. “Reading the Sky” runs Saturdays in The Valdosta Daily Times through April 21.

“Reading the Sky” is about a boy named Jamie, who has difficulty reading his books because of dyslexia, but he can read the clouds overhead. One day, he sees a man in a suit parachute from a plane. No one believes Jamie, though. Too bad. The man is a thief and kidnapper. Jamie finds himself embroiled in adventure.

It is a very different story from Avi’s “The Secret School” but it is as suitable for the entire family. The Valdosta Daily Times and Val-Tech presented “The Secret School” throughout late summer and the fall. It proved a popular story with readers. Some schools used the serial as part of classroom lessons.

Promoting reading for the entire family and within classrooms is part of author Avi’s aim.

Avi is the pen name of Avi Wortis, a 2003 winner of the prestigious

Newberry Medal and the author of more than 55 books for young people.

Born in 1937, his twin sister gave him his distinctive name, Avi. Raised in New York, his parents were deeply involved in the civil-rights movement. His early writings were met with criticism and indifference, according to the ClassZone authors Internet site. After several years as a librarian, he launched “a career as one of the most acclaimed writers of young adult fiction of his generation,” ClassZone notes.

His books include “Poppy,” “True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle,” “Crispin: The Cross of Lead,” “Nothing But the Truth,” “The Fighting Ground,” “Things That Sometimes Happen,” “Beyond the Western Sea,” “Wolf Rider,” “The Man Who Was Poe,” “Something Upstairs,” “Midnight Magic,” “Don’t You Know There’s A War On.”

As for creating stories for newspapers, his Breakfast Serials biography notes that he grew up reading such serializations in New York newspapers. He is also the founding executive and chairman of Breakfast Serials.

In a past interview, Avi has said, “I think it speaks to the unique role local newspapers play in our communities. In a nation of mass media, the hometown newspaper is an absolutely vital force in defining what a community is. Each newspaper has taken each Breakfast Serials novel, and made it their own, for their own readers. In short, Breakfast Serials is in partnership with newspapers.

“You know, most children in the United States are aliterate, meaning they know how to read but don’t want to. I gather not much is known about why an individual becomes a reader for pleasure. But it is known that talking about reading with family and friends increases the number of hours committed to reading. Breakfast Serials is predicated on the notion that if a community reads together, the reading process can shift from being a private experience to a social one and that in turn increases a reader’s further participation in the reading process.”

Avi says that writing serialized stories is no more difficult than writing anything well; however, serials demand brevity which can be difficult.

He notes that writers must be willing to try new formats to reach new readers, but that the essence always depends on good storytelling.

“I believe that people need stories in their lives, but that over time the forms storytelling take changes,” Avi says. “So, as a writer it is my job to find a way to reach young readers, entertain them, move them to emotion and thought. As long as I can do that with today’s kids, hopefully, I’ll be around tomorrow.”

He is joined in “Reading the Sky” by illustrator Joan Sandin, who has been writing and illustrating children’s books for 35 years in the United States and Switzerland.