Three Brands Join to Promote Summer Reading

In an effort to promote literacy while at the same time bridge the summer gap, iVillage, PBS KIDS and Scholastic have joined forces to launch two summer reading programs.

Designed to be entertaining and easy enough to fit into every family’s busy summer schedule, both challenges, the Scholastic Summer Challenge and the iVillage PBS KIDS Summer Reading Community Challenge, are now available through SummerReadingCentral.com.

The Scholastic Summer Challengeis a free reading program dedicated to stopping the “Summer Slide,” a term which describes the loss of academic skills that many children experience during summer vacation. Now in its fifth year, the Summer Challenge motivates kids to read more over the summer and to log the minutes they spend reading as they Read for the World Record. The 20 schools with the most minutes logged will receive recognition in the “2012 Scholastic Book of World Records.” Kids can participate in weekly challenges, earn digital rewards, enter sweepstakes to win fun prizes and more.

"Research shows that kids who do not read during the summer months are likely to suffer learning losses when they return to school in the fall,” said Patrick Daley, Senior Vice President, Scholastic Classroom and Community Group. “However, the solution to the “Summer Slide” is simple. By letting kids choose the books they want to read and providing them with books to take home over the summer, the majority of kids not only maintain their skills, but make reading gains.”

For the second year in a row, WORDGIRL, the lead character in the PBS KIDS GO! series, is serving as the national Ambassador of Summer Reading.

The iVillage PBS KIDS Summer Reading Community Challenge runs from June 6 to July 15 and features free literacy-building resources for parents and children designed by the experts at PBS Parents and PBS KIDS. As Challenge Coach, Angela Santomero, Creator, Executive Producer and Head Writer of SUPER WHY!, will provide daily reading activity assignments, answer parent questions and offer advice throughout the online event. Guest coaches such as cast members, characters, authors and series creators from PBS KIDS will also provide activities and ideas each week. Sign-ups begin now at ivillage.com/pbs.

“As a leader in the women's digital space, iVillage has been incredibly successful with many of our reading initiatives focused on parents reading to kids,” said Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, marketing senior vice president for iVillage. “By tapping into the enormous community of moms within iVillage, we have the potential to make a significant impact on children’s literacy. Together with our partners, we’ll have an even greater opportunity to move the needle when it comes to getting families more involved with summer reading.”

To support reading at the local level, iVillage and PBS KIDS will sponsor reading parties hosted by iVillage members and bloggers. Participants will also have a daily chance to win a $100 gift card that can help build home libraries. iVillage will also renew its “Read-Along” series, featuring videos of notable authors and celebrities reading children’s books on tape.

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