August 17, 2018Member News, On Our Radar

2018 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Update

Minute Mania Month Launches! Students Log Reading Minutes from the Entire Summer

44 State Leaders Encourage Summer Learning as Reading Ambassadors

NEW YORK – According to research from the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report™: 6th Edition, and despite conventional wisdom, six in 10 children ages 6–17 agree, “I really enjoy reading books over the summer.” Kids across the nation have been busy reading while school is out, logging more than 96 million minutes in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. Parents, educators, community partners and, notably, state leaders serving as Summer Reading Ambassadors, have all joined in by encouraging children to keep reading this summer. Today, Scholastic announced the launch of Minute Mania Month to keep the momentum going and bring summer break to a close.

For more about the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, visit: www.scholastic.com/summer.

Michael Haggen, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic Education shared, “Participating in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge has brought kids, along with their parents, educators, and state leaders, together in the mission for year-long literacy. Today, we celebrate every child who has logged their summer reading minutes and thank all of the reading role models in their lives who have encouraged a love of reading. In these final days of summer, let’s continue to encourage children to keep reading and help them start the school year ready to learn.”

During Minute Mania Month, kids participating in the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge can catch up on logging their reading minutes from the entire summer and help with the final push for their school, library, or community partner organization to earn top honors and the chance to be featured in the 2019 Scholastic Book of World Records this fall. Open until September 7^th, the Challenge makes free literacy resources available to kids, parents, and educators and motivates kids to read all summer.

Additionally, Scholastic is proud to recognize the state leaders who have signed on as Reading Ambassadors in support of the 2018 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. The 41 gubernatorial spouses, two governors, and one lieutenant governor play an important role in tackling the summer slide by connecting with children, families, and educators and hosting read-aloud events in their communities to highlight the importance of summer learning. As part of the program, each Reading Ambassador donates 500 new Scholastic titles to the school(s) of his or her choice to help ensure that kids have access to books to read during the school break. Since the program’s inception, Scholastic and participating Reading Ambassadors have donated a total of 250,000 books to schools and students across the country.

Mr. Haggen added, “This year’s Reading Ambassadors helped us elevate the importance of summer reading in their communities and through our partnership, they reinforced the educational foundation educators have worked so hard to create during the school year. Everyone in a child’s life can play a role in keeping the joy and excitement of reading alive throughout the summer and we greatly appreciate the important role these leaders have served.”

Scholastic thanks the following leaders, representing 44 states and U.S. territories, for serving as Reading Ambassadors (mediaroom.scholastic.com/readingambassadors) for the 2018 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge: