Get Ready To Set A New Scholastic World Record For Summer Reading

NEW YORK, May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- While athletes prepare for the 2012 Summer Olympics, kids will compete in their own challenge – the Scholastic Summer Challenge - a free, interactive reading program dedicated to helping kids keep their reading skills sharp throughout the summer by reading every day.  Kids everywhere will Read for the World Record by logging the minutes they spend reading this summer and attempting to beat the current world record of 64,213,141 minutes set during summer 2011. The 20 schools whose students log the most minutes will be recognized in the 2013 Scholastic Book of World Records. The Scholastic Summer Challenge kicks-off today at www.scholastic.com/summer and runs through August 31, 2012.

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"Just like the world's greatest athletes, children need to keep their skills sharp and reading is like any other skill - it needs to be practiced," said Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic. "Without this practice, children find themselves falling down the 'Summer Slide,' and that is not the fun slide at the park, but rather the loss of critical learning and reading skills caused by not reading books over the summer."  Francie continued, "The proven way to get kids reading is to put them in charge of their own reading – let them choose the books they want to read, when they want to read, and how they want to read – whether in print or digitally. It is the win-win summer reading solution."

SUMMER READING FOR KIDS:

The Summer Challenge motivates kids with weekly challenges, fun sweepstakes, virtual rewards, book chats and friendly competition. Starting today, kids can log their reading minutes, track their reading stats, and their school's rank, collect virtual rewards in their 'prize center' and enter sweepstakes for the chance to win free books. For the third year in a row, WORDGIRL™ , from the Emmy Award winning television series airing on PBS KIDS GO!, is serving as the national "Ambassador of Summer Reading" to help encourage kids to practice reading in order to have a better vocabulary.

To reach even more young readers this summer, the Scholastic Summer Challenge is teaming up with the American Camp Association's® Explore 30 initiative that encourages campers to read 30 minutes every day.  Campers nationwide will be logging their reading minutes to help break the world record.

SUMMER READING FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS:

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