BORO star Mark Schwarzer swapped the football pitch for the library when he helped launch a Premier League initiative that encourages families to pick up a book and read more often.

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The long-serving goalkeeper launched this year's Premier League Reading Stars project when he joined local schoolchildren at Middlesbrough Central Library.

Schwarzer will be reading from and discussing 'Megs and the Vootball Kids', a fiction book he co-wrote with friend Neill Montagnana-Wallace.

The Australia international took part in a question-and-answer session about how he came to write the book and why he thinks reading is important.

Premier League Reading Stars is an the innovative project that asks Barclays Premier League players to select their favourite children or adult's book to create a 20-strong book list.

With the scheme now in its sixth year, this is the first time a Premier League player has been involved in the writing of one of the books.

Explaining the background to the book, Schwarzer said: "It's about a football-mad kid from Liverpool, who struggles to adapt to his new environment when he immigrates to Australia with his family.

"Basically, the only things he knows about Australia are Neighbours, Home and Away and that it's full of kangaroos!

"He doesn't think that football will be a big game in Australia, but he soon finds that kids down under are just as football crazy as they are in England and the book tells the tale of how he and his friends try to set up a school football team.

"It's a story about how football can break down barriers, as his new friends are all from different ethnic backgrounds. The book's writer, Neill, is English, while my parents are German, so we both had different experiences from our childhood in terms of ethnic backgrounds, as did our wives. A lot of our experiences are in this book."

The book is available to buy from both MFC Retail stores and by clicking here to buy online

Other big name internationals such as Matthew Upson, Dirk Kuyt and Jermaine Jenas are among the 20 players who have chosen their favourite books.

Their choices range from classic novels such as John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, sports biographies like Joe Lovejoy's chronicle of the life of George Best: Bestie: A Portrait of a Legend and children's favourites like Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach.

All Premier League clubs have adopted at least one library, who receive free copies of all the recommended titles. Families who take part in sessions at the library have the chance to meet their Reading Champion, a local author and get involved in a series of football-based literacy games throughout the initiative.

Results from last year's project indicate that Premier League Reading Stars is working, with 97% of children who took part saying that they will read more regularly as a result and 90% of parents said they would go to a library more often.

The scheme has been developed as part of a partnership between the National Literacy Trust, Arts Council England, Football Foundation and the Premier League, and will be supported by a series of family reading groups at libraries across the country.

The book is available to buy from both MFC Retails Stores and by clicking here to buy online.