My children love a trip to McDonald's and part of the fun is finding out what treat they will get along with their food in a Happy Meal box. You can see how much they love the whole experience in the picture below, taken on a previous visit.
They are particularly excited at the moment as The Extraordinary world of Roald Dahl is back at McDonald’s as part of
their Happy Readers campaign giveaway which has proved enormously successful since it first launched in 2012.
Can you believe over 50 million books have been distributed
since launching the literacy initiative Happy Readers? That's twice the number of books in the British Library.
The McDonald’s Happy Readers campaign
aims to increase book ownership amongst kids and
encourage both children and parents to find the joy in reading.
You might have already picked up one of the series of eight exclusive books specially developed for the promotion, each
focusing on a number of Roald
Dahl’s characters, including Matilda, the BFG and Willy Wonka since the 5-week campaign launched on the globally recognised Roald Dahl Day on September 13th.
Other characters in the series include the Marvellous
Miss Honey, Matilda’s kind-hearted teacher who sees her potential despite
Matilda’s horrible parents and the Mischievous
Chocolate Factory Children such as Augustus
Gloop and Veruca Salt, who discover the weird and wonderful secrets of Willy
Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
McDonald’s anticipate at least 11 million books will
be sold as part of Happy Meals across the five week promotional period with all featuring extracts from Roald Dahl’s most popular classics along with tips from the National Literacy Trust designed to help parents who want to make reading to their children more fun.
The books also contain Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations, activities, stickers and a bookmark that can be popped out from the back to help kids keep their place in the book. My children adore the books and it's a great way to give them a taster so they can choose which of the complete original books they'd like to read next.
They proved to be ideal for my younger son who, like many boys of his age, struggles to enjoy reading fiction but I was delighted to see he found the books short and interesting enough to hold his attention.
My bookworm daughter squirrelled hers away for those evenings when I allow 10 minutes extra before bed as long as they spend the time reading.
Welcoming Roald Dahl back to the fold marks the latest move in
McDonald’s commitment to children’s literacy through a partnership between
McDonald’s Happy Readers, Penguin Random House Children’s UK, the Roald Dahl
Literary Estate and the National Literacy Trust.
Over the years, McDonald’s has
offered some of the UK’s best-loved family reads from Dorling Kindersley’s
‘Amazing World’ series to Enid Blyton’s ‘Secret Seven’ and Jeff Kinney’s ‘Diary
of a Wimpy Kid’ - all great books!
In a busy family like mine it can be hard to find time to read to the children and I am sure I am not alone in confessing it can start to feel like a chore when there is so much else to do, especially when they can read by themselves.
Here are some top tips for reading with children:
- Bring the story to life by using different voices for the characters. Try out a pompous tone for Augustus, or a high, whiny voice for Veruca.
- Make your child the author! Stop at exciting moments in the story and ask your child to invent what happens next.
- Make reading with your child a special time for you both every day.
- Children of all ages love to hear stories read aloud so don’t stop reading to your children just because they can read by themselves.
- Let your child help choose the books that you’ll read together. If your child is excited by the subject, the story will hold their interest better.
You can find out more about The Happy Readers campaign HERE. Peter Andre has welcomed the campaign and you can watch a video featuring him and his beautiful children HERE.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post #HappyReaders