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Are You Ready for a Magical Summer of Reading? The 2018 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge Is Officially Open!

Students Can Now Begin to Log Their Reading Minutes, Earn Digital Prizes, and Access Free Resources Including Author Videos, Downloadable Activities, and More!

Two Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip RVs Will Hit the Road in July to Host Free Pop-Up Reading Festivals for Families and Communities Across the U.S.

NEW YORK – May 7, 2018 – According to research from the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report™: 6th Edition, 80% of children ages 6–17 agree that summer reading will help them during the school year, yet, depending on age, as many as one in five kids do not read any books at all over the summer. To encourage kids to stay motivated to read all summer break, Scholastic today announced the opening of the 2018 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge™, a free, online and mobile-friendly summer reading program. All summer, kids can track their reading minutes online and in select cities during the month of July be part of the Summer Reading Road Trip, a traveling pair of RVs hosting pop-up reading festivals at book stores and community libraries.

To learn more about the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge and the Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip visit: www.scholastic.com/summer.

The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

This year’s Challenge theme, A Magical Summer of Reading, encourages students to join in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the U.S. publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone while tracking their summer reading minutes. Participants can see the Challenge theme come to life with beautiful artwork by Jim Kay from the Harry Potter illustrated series.

Students who are registered for the Challenge by an educator, public librarian, or community literacy partner can:

  • Log their reading minutes to earn digital prizes when they complete weekly reading challenges and gain access to 18 reading activities, including games, quizzes, and videos based on the Harry Potter series;
  • Access videos featuring popular children’s book authors reading aloud from their titles and illustrators bringing their characters to life;
  • Use the new timer feature that acts as a stopwatch to track their personal reading time;
  • Monitor their participating school, public library, or community literacy partner organization’s reading progress by using the interactive map.

In addition, the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge site offers free educational resources to educators, public librarians, community literacy partners, and families, including booklists for all ages in both English and Spanish, video content from literacy experts and authors, downloadable activities for group instruction or home use, as well as printable reading pledges, logs, and certificates. This year’s Challenge also features dashboards that allow educators, public librarians, and community literacy partners to track their students’ reading minutes and print both individual and group reading reports.

After the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge closes on September 7th, the school in each U.S. state, territory, and the District of Columbia with the most minutes read will be named “Best in State,” and the top 10 public libraries and top 10 community partner organizations with the most minutes read will receive an official Scholastic party kit that includes a commemorative plaque, congratulatory banner, and student certificates to celebrate their achievement. In addition, these top sites will be featured in the 2019 Scholastic Book of World Records.

Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip

This July launches the third year of the Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip. In an effort to promote reading for fun over the summer, two Scholastic-branded RVs will tour the country, hosting free, pop-up family reading festivals at bookstores and public libraries in 30 cities nationwide. Kids and families can visit the events and meet some of their favorite Scholastic authors and illustrators, join in on fun reading activities, win prizes, and more. You can find a list of Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip locations and tour dates online at http://summerroadtrip.scholastic.com and follow all of the excitement on social media via #SummerReading.

QUOTE:

Ellie Berger, EVP and President of Scholastic Trade Publishing.

“Once again this summer we are excited to inspire children everywhere to keep reading while school is out and enjoy a magical book-filled summer.  As part of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, we look forward to seeing communities come together at the Summer Reading Road Trip events in cities around the country­a festival atmosphere where kids, families, educators, librarians, and community partners can come together and meet many popular children’s book authors, illustrators, and characters—all to promote the importance and joy of reading.”

For more information about Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), visit the Company’s media room: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com.

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