Get Ready, Get Set, Read With Celebrities!
It might be April and frigid in upstate New York (come on sun), but the summer reading campaigns are already going full bore.
This year the big names in books are booking celebrities to convince our kids that all the cool kids are doing it . . . reading I mean.
Scholastic is giving kids a sneak peek at its Summer Challenge, which will kick off on April 30 in classrooms nationwide. Kids can get started by downloading summer reading lists (there are sections for the three to five set on up to young adult) and posting their own question to be answered on a reading game show live webcast on the 30th. Sign your kids up now, and they can be part of the Read for the World Record challenge, which kicks off May 1. Videos with celebrity readers, games and prizes will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
Reading is Fundamental (RIF) has revealed a portion of its line-up, including “honorary book team” members Jerry Seinfeld, Al Roker and Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony and two of our faves: Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton.
RIF has teamed up with U.S. Airways for its summer reading promotion, Fly With US, Read With Kids, which will give readers chances to win Disney vacations, U.S. Airways gift packages and more as they book their way to five million minutes of reading time for parents and kids in the nation by June 30. Get your kids signed up, create your team and add to the minutes on their site.
For the off-times, when you don’t have time to sit down with them and a book, check out Speakaboos for celebs reading nursery rhymes, fables and folk tales to your kids. You can get a look-see at Lisa DiSimone, Chazz Palminteri, Christopher Meloni (you know, the guy who does all those “you have to read to your kids” ads on Noggin? oh yeah, and the yummy dad from SVU?) and more on their site, and buy them to download onto your iPod for on the go.
Image: People (we promise, he does a much better job on Speakaboos)
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