Author to Offer Tips on Getting Kids to Read : Jim Trelease will tell parents how to divert children away from television and make ‘books into friends.’

Those of us reared on reading are unable to kick the habit--nor do we want to. And yet, information hounds that we are, we are drawn to television and watch incessantly. How can we inspire a generation addicted to seductive and often wonderful TV programming to discover the power and solitude (but not loneliness) that reading gives us?

Some of the answers will be provided by Jim Trelease, the best-selling author of “The New Read-Aloud Handbook” and two anthologies of children’s stories, “Hey! Listen to This” and “Read All About It!” Trelease, who spent 20 years visiting hundreds of classrooms to talk with children about the joys of reading, now lectures all over the country. He will speak on “How to Motivate Children to Make Books Into Friends” at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday in the Cal Lutheran University gymnasium, 60 W. Olsen Road.

“The decline in American literacy,” Trelease says, “is due in large part to the fact that two-thirds of our children no longer want to read. Reading aloud to a child is the oldest and most successful method of rekindling that desire.”

Trelease will also offer a plan for helping parents diminish the influence of television on their children.

The event is coordinated by Colleen Briner-Schmidt and co-sponsored by the Thousand Oaks chapter of the American Assn. of University Women and CLU Continuing Education. Trelease’s lectures are usually a sellout. Call 493-3130 to reserve tickets, which are $7.50.

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Jordan Jones of Simi Valley, editor of the literary journal Bakunin and author of the poetry collection “Sand & Coal,” and Brent Cunningham will read at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Arcade Poetry Series in the Performance Studio, 34 N. Palm St., Ventura. Call 652-2820.

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Mysteries to Die For, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., will host five practitioners of the mystery genre next week. Authors Janet La Pierre (“Old Enemies”), Marlys Millhiser (“Murder at Moot Point”) and Karen Kijewski (“Wild Cat”) will sign their books at 1:30 p.m. Monday. Camilla Crespi will sign “The Trouble With Thin Ice” at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, followed at 3 p.m. by Jon Jackson, author of “Deadmen.”

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Plan Ahead: Nancy Carlson, author of one of the best books on self-esteem, “I Like Me,” will give a story presentation of her new book, “Life Is Fun,” from 3 to 5 p.m. next Thursday at Adventures for Kids, 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura.