The Today Show Launches Book Club for Kids

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 4/26/2007 11:52:00 AM

Tomorrow morning, The Today Show’s Al Roker will launch "Al’s Book Club for Kids," a series to keep kids engaged in reading all summer long. This new Today series coincides with the "Scholastic Summer Reading BUZZ!" campaign to get kids reading "Four or More" books to combat "the summer slide"—what academics call a common loss of reading skills from kids being out of school during the summer.

"Scholastic is proud to join with Today to promote summer reading," says Francie Alexander, Scholastic chief academic officer. "Al Roker is likely to do for kids’ reading what Oprah has done for adults’ reading."

Four times this summer Roker and a group of book club members, ages 9-11, will meet in Rockefeller Plaza for their monthly book club meeting to talk about a selected book and question the author. "Books from all publishers are part of the ‘Summer Reading BUZZ!’ campaign," Sara Sinek of Scholastic told PW. Kids and parents can get involved by logging on to Todayshow.com and Scholastic.com/summerreading. The Today Show will select the titles in cooperation with librarians and Francie Alexander of Scholastic.

"Summer is a perfect time time for kids to experience reading as fun activity that can be done indoors and out," said Alexander. "The Kids and Family Reading Report shows that kids reading after age eight declines and the number one reason is because they can’t find books they like to read. Parents play a critical role and they can keep it fun by helping their kids identify books that they really want to read."

For every four books logged on the "Summer Reading BUZZ!" reading logs, Scholastic will donate a book to Reading is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s largest and oldest children’s and family literacy organization. Up to 50,000 books will be distributed to kids, who might not otherwise be able to own a book of their own.