When you’re a world away from home and those you love, any contact is better than none. If you’re in the military, contact’s a lifeline, especially when it helps you keep up emotionally. That’s the plan for the March 2011 launch of the British-based Reading Force Project created by Kingston University lecturer and army wife Alison Baverstock.

Baverstock created Reading Force so deployed military personnel and their at-home families could read the same book as a way to bridge the life gaps she and her husband felt during phone calls. “This project arose from my own situation,” Baverstock said. “I am a great believer in the power of books to prompt conversation and discussion, and found this particularly powerful when my husband was away.”

During those times, it got hard just talking about daily life because of the inherent conversation restrictions. And when a question like how’s the weather’s a location-buster, what’s left? “When they ring up from a tour [of duty], the time seems very precious, and yet often you cannot think how best to use it. You cannot ask what they are doing, and your own life seems humdrum by comparison,” Baverstock said. “Books are a good common ground, and I quite often sent my husband something to read that I had enjoyed. I am hoping this project will do the same within families, and already it is drawing a very positive response.”

Plans for Reading Force were fleshed out at Kingston University, where Baverstock is course leader for the master’s in publishing program. “I have always made reader development a key part of the course. We intend to turn out future publishers who want to spread the habit of reading as widely as possible, not just create new books they and their friends would enjoy,” she said.

Reading Force may also be a way for dissenters to conscientiously support those who serve. “It does seem to be of the moment,” Baverstock acknowledged. “Society may [be] confused about British involvement in war, but it does seem strongly pro-service personnel. And a project to improve communication within service families, and between them and their host communities, can surely only benefit society as a whole. Now I just have to persuade my own four children to take part!”

As soldiers and their families and friends read a book, Reading Force encourages them to record their thoughts — by letter, via e-mail or by drawing — in a scrapbook. They can choose any book or one of the project’s suggestions. Baverstock says what matters is that the book works for those involved — a kind of emotional demilitarized zone that helps soldiers and their families gain traction for a future homecoming. “It can be hard for soldiers to feel involved in the family when they come home again,” Baverstock said.

Along with other writers, ward-winning children’s book author Alan Gibbons is glad to be part of the project. “I am delighted to support the Reading Force project. I think of the things that keep me going as a human being, and what are they? Well, there’s family, there’s sharing our hopes, dreams and aspirations, and there’s story. As a child, I loved sharing a book with my mum and later with my friends. In books and stories, we recognize our humanity, our common interests, our history. That’s what made Reading Force such an easy initiative to support. It aims to bring families together by sharing books and exchanging their opinions and feelings about them. If I as a writer can contribute anything to support this community, I will.” Gibbons will speak about Reading Force at Wavell School in Hampshire, England, on March 22.

Reading Force’s website, www.readingforce.org, will go live by early March, and the project will officially launch on March 5 at Hampshire Aldershot Garrison, the longtime home of the British Army. The launch includes an on-site writing day. “We have been strongly supported by a terrific bunch of head teachers, teachers and librarians in the Aldershot area and more widely by the local borough and county councils,” Alison Baverstock said.

A U.S.-based reading program that links kids with parents deployed to war zones for unspecified time frames is United Through Reading. In this program, deployed parents read kids’ books aloud via DVD.

For more information on Reading Force, read this article from The Guardian.