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It鈥檚 the recipe for a perfect literacy campaign: stars from one of the world鈥檚 great soccer teams putting one million e-books in the hands of African children.

Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona teamed up Thursday with nonprofit literacy organization in a literacy campaign that aims to distribute one million digital books to children in sub-Saharan Africa with limited access to literature.

鈥淲orldreader is committed to putting a digital library in the hands of all children throughout the world's developing countries, and we're thrilled with the support of FC Barcelona to send one million e-books to students in Africa,鈥� Worldreader CEO David Risher told .

In order to achieve its goal of distributing one million e-books to 10,000 children in Africa, Worldreader is seeking $5 from one million donors. Because e-readers are often shared among friends and family members, Worldreader expects the campaign to put e-books in the hands of 50,000 people. The nonprofit has already donated 100,000 books to 1,000 students in Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, and hopes to expand into Rwanda and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa soon.

The e-books will include local African textbooks, African and other fiction for children, world newspapers, and classic literature from around the world.

Thanks to Thursday鈥檚 partnership, literacy 鈥渂ackup鈥� is arriving in the form of star players from FC Barcelona including idolized soccer stars Lionel Messi, Xavi, Eric Abidal, and Seydou Keita, who will send messages to the individual students via e-readers encouraging students to read and achieve their goals.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to get them to do something radically different,鈥� Risher told social media news blog . 鈥淲hen a student sees the image of a player he idolizes, it brings a whole new culture and habit, associating reading with a hero. Using these tricks, we can get kids to read more, making it more fun and a bigger part of their lives.鈥�

Technology 鈥� here in the form of Amazon Kindle e-readers (Risher is a former Amazon executive) 鈥� can be a surprisingly effective way to get books into the hands of the developing world.

鈥淯nlike traditional books -- which had to be physically imported, one title at a time -- a single e-Reader could provide a child with a vast array of current, relevant titles at a low distribution cost,鈥� reports .

Another advantage, font sizes can easily be increased on e-readers, enabling students without proper eyeglasses to read more easily.

E-readers also give students access to a much greater variety of titles than traditional books would, according to a 12-month Worldreader pilot program: 107 books, on average, as opposed to the between 3 to 11 books the average student has access to at home without the devices. E-readers also 鈥減rovided a pathway into the digital world鈥� for some African students, about 43 percent of whom had never used a computer before, according to the Worldreader .

鈥淲orldreader has not only given us unparalleled access to books, the program has motivated my students and instilled a joy for reading that never existed before,鈥� said Jacqueline Abiso Dzifa, a teacher at Presbyterian Primary in Kade, Ghana, whose students participated in the pilot.

Worldreader is appealing to bibliophiles around the globe to make $5 donations to support its campaign. We can鈥檛 think of a better way to spend a Lincoln.

Check out the , or make a donation .

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.