"The Hills'" Lo Bosworth goes on the record about reading to kids

Jumpstart's Chris Padula introduces Lo Bosworth at American Eagle

Lo Bosworth, star of MTV series "The Hills," wants you to read to your kids. And maybe some other kids, too. After all, that's what she's doing.

The BFF of "Hills" alpha femme Lauren Conrad is once again joining Jumpstart in promoting its Read for the Record campaign after a successful run last year. The early literacy organization is hoping to break a record by having 1 million children read the same book on the same day. The book? A CC fave, Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." The date: Oct. 8, 2009.

Lo was on hand today to chat with me at Hollywood and Highland's American Eagle store before signing copies of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

She talked with me about how involved her parents were with reading to her and how it has positively affected every part of her life. Having a mom who was a teacher herself also might have given her a head start.

"Growing up, my mom would take me to the library every week," she said. "And I loved the library. There was no kicking and screaming on the way there."

That, she added, helped encourage her love of reading, which in turn helped her to excel in school.

"It has helped me throughout my life, and there's no reason for me not to want to give that gift back to children in my own community."

Part of that giving back involves her going into Kindergarten through third-grade classes to read to kids.

"The funniest thing is the patterns that you see (with the kids)," Lo said. "They know the story themselves. You read it to them, and they'll read along with you, or they'll scream the word at the end of the page because they know it's coming. So it's really interesting to see those kinds of patterns the more time you spend with children."

Sounds like she knows her stuff. That's exactly how kids are.

So will MTV be airing her good works on upcoming episodes of "The Hills"?

"No, it's not on the show. I wish," Lo said. "They love, you know, drama and boys and fights and stuff. More than calm reading to children."

"No, this is the organization that I feel most strongly about," she added. "It's really close to my heart. But everybody on the show has something that they're passionate about."

Some of Lo's favorite children's books:

• "Green Eggs and Ham," by Dr. Seuss
• "The Berenstain Bears" series, by Stan and Jan Berenstain
• "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," by Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett (Yes, she's going to see the upcoming movie.)
• "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak (Kids ask her to read this book the most, she said.)