Fill Your Prescription for Reading

Prescription for Reading kits are currently being shipped from Baker & Taylor to booksellers who have signed up for the 2002 program. Kits are still available for the program, which launches on July 1 and continues through December 31, 2002.

Under the program, booksellers distribute "prescriptions," or coupons, to healthcare providers, who then pass them on to parents and caregivers. The coupons can be redeemed at the participating bookstore for both a free copy of the year's exclusive book and a coupon for a savings at Pizza Hut. This year's book is a special edition of Sylvia Long's Mother Goose, published by Chronicle Books.

Prescription for Reading is sponsored by a partnership of ABA, Book Sense, Chronicle Books, Baker & Taylor, and the Pizza Hut® BOOK IT!® Program.

All storefront bookstore members of ABA can order two promotional kits and 200 copies of Sylvia Long's special edition Mother Goose for a program fee of $50. Included in each kit are the books, the "prescriptions," Pizza Hut discount coupons, and specially designed posters. The kits contain promotional materials to be used with local healthcare providers to encourage wide distribution of the Prescription for Reading coupons to parents and caregivers.

Order by check or credit card as soon as possible to participate. Click here for the Prescription for Reading Kit Order Form. Click here for Frequently Asked Questions About Prescription for Reading. For more information about Prescription for Reading, contact Jill Perlstein at jill@bookweb.org.

ABA's Partner -- Pizza Hut's® Book It!® Program Expands

This year's Prescription for Reading Program includes a first-time partnership with the Pizza Hut Book It! Program. BOOK IT! is the nation's largest reading incentive program. In 17 years, it has reached 277 million children. Last year, 21 million children in 830,000 classrooms in 50,000 schools participated in the BOOK IT! Program.

Last year, the BOOK IT! Program formed a partnership with the Los Angeles Times to promote early childhood reading. The program has added three more newspapers for the 2002-2003 school year -- the Baltimore Sun, the Lima News in Ohio, and the Grants Pass Daily Courier in Oregon.

Last spring, the BOOK IT! / Los Angeles Times National Reading Incentive Campaign resulted in a 25 percent increase in the number of schools enrolled in the BOOK IT! Program. This year's goal is a 20 percent increase for the other newspapers. To enlist new schools, the newspapers sent letters to elementary schools in their circulation areas in March and ran ads in early April asking parents, caregivers, and principals to sign up their schools for the 2002-2003 BOOK IT! program. Teachers at participating schools set monthly reading goals for students. When a child meets the monthly reading goal, the teacher gives the student a certificate entitling the child to a free Personal Pan Pizza and recognition at a participating Pizza Hut restaurant.