Diana Johnson and Roger Wright Jr. were having trouble keeping up their level of reading in school. Now, they're catching up, thanks to volunteer tutors from a unique YMCA program.

Ten-year-old Diana is a graduate of the YRead program after a year of twice-a-week sessions with volunteer Michelle Hatfield. Diana is a fourth grader at Annunziata Learning Center.

Nine-year-old Roger started in YRead last May. So the fourth grader at St. Louis Charter School has four months of tutoring sessions left with volunteer Alicia Jones.

Both kids started in the program after they fell up to two years behind their school classmates in reading ability. To be accepted in YRead, the youngster and his parents have to agree to attend two tutoring sessions a week for a full year.

Diana graduated from the program last November. That meant she had made progress in closing the reading gap in her school.

She told her volunteer tutor, "My classmates don't laugh at me anymore about my reading."

Roger said his school teacher already has noticed his reading progress. "She was proud of me because I read a whole page in class without making a mistake," he said.

Reading test scores show lots of St. Louis elementary and middle school kids aren't reading at grade level. The ability to read is the key to learning almost all other subjects in school.

There are a lot of volunteer tutoring programs in the St. Louis area. But, most of them are for younger kids. The YRead program gives a special focus to helping kids from seven to 14 years of age.

That's the same group of Young Saint Louis.com wants to reach. And, the way YRead volunteers help is very similar to the reading lessons found on the For Adults layer of the YSL.com website.

Diana met her tutor at the Buder branch of the St. Louis City Library. That's the same branch where Roger is now taking his lessons.

Roger said his lesson starts by reading some short books from the library. He said, "Then, my tutor has me read from her workbook. I read and she helps me if I get to a tough word.

"She has me try to sound out that word to see if I can find a little word within the bigger word."

Diana said her tutor would point out the difficult words before she started to read. The tutor also had her try to look for smaller words that are part of the difficult ones. That way, she could get a clue to what the bigger word meant, she said.

Both of them said the tutors would ask questions after they finished reading. Roger said, "My tutor wants to make sure I understand what I just read." (The YSL.com lesson plans also suggest discussion questions after a kid finishes reading one of the website stories.)

Diana and Roger now are doing a lot of reading on his own. Both said they like the Harry Potter books. "My aunt is reading one to me," Roger said.

Diana had one of the Harry Potter books read to her twice. "Now, I'm reading it on my own," she said.

Both of them have seen the movie.

Diana's favorite books are adventures and animal books. She said she has three adventure books featuring twins Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. "I've also got five of their videos," Diana said.

Roger said he likes adventure stories.

Kathy Adkisson is the program director for YRead. It is headquartered at the Carondelet Branch of the YMCA of Greater St. Louis.

She said, "Our main thrust is to use literature to teach reading."

She said the YRead tutors are volunteers "from local churches, colleges and the community." They get special training in helping kids learn to read. The tutors also have to agree to work one-on-one with a kid for a whole year. The tutoring sessions are held twice a week for one hour each time.

If you or your parents would like to learn more about the YRead program, you can call Kathy Adkisson at (314) 353-4960 or e-mail her at literacy@ymcastlouis.org.