Pizza Hut’s Book It! program has been a favorite of kids for generations at this point (yes, you are old), but every old-school favorite eventually needs an internet-age refreshment. Founded all the way back in 1984, Book It!, was a response to President Reagan’s call for more businesses to aid education. The Pizza Hut company president at time, Arthur Gunther, was inspired by his own son’s struggles with reading, and Book It! was born. Fast-forward 40 years, and over 70 million children have participated in the program, reading books in exchange for Book It! gifts, or the real prize: Pizza Hut’s popular pizzas. In fact the program has given out 1.5 billion free Personal Pan Pizzas to kids. And now, claiming those coveted rewards has just gotten a little bit easier, as the pizza chain has announced a new Book It! app for the literacy program.
According to a press release from Pizza Hut, the Book it! app is now available on app stores and is made to keep children reading all summer long. The company is specifically trying to expand its initiative to combat the “Summer Slide,” a well-known phenomenon of children’s reading skills dipping during the long break of summer vacation. On that theme, the app’s launch is part of the larger Book It! Summer of Stories, program that will help parents set summer reading goals for their children, specifically aimed at kids in the Pre-K through 6th grade age range.
Pizza Hut’s new Book It! app helps parents and schools manage kids’ summer reading
Both parents and schools can download the Book It! app from the stuffed-crust slinging Pizza Hut to participate in the Summer of Stories program, which is scheduled to start on June 1. The app let’s users set specific goals for children, log their progress, and claim rewards all in one place or, as the company puts it: “This new platform will help keep reading goals top of mind this summer — and turn progress into pizza!” Children using the program will be able to earn one free personal pan pizza for each month of the summer program in June, July, and August by hitting the goals parents set for them.
The Pizza Hut Book It! app will also be a way for teachers to set up the school-year Book It! Program ahead of time, which normally runs from October 1 until March 31 of the following year. And hey, while kids will be earning personal pan pizzas, maybe teachers can reward themselves with some of Pizza Hut’s best pizzas too. Why should the kids have all the fun?
