Book It...to Pizza Hut

Critics denounce Pizza Hut reading program

Since 1985, that's been the gist of Pizza Hut's Book It, an incentive program used by 50,000 schools nationwide to reward young readers with free pizzas. The program is now under attack by child-development experts who say it promotes bad eating habits and turns teachers into corporate promoters.

Book It, which reaches about 22 million children a year, "epitomizes everything that's wrong with corporate-sponsored programs in school," said Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist and co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

"In the name of education, it promotes junk food consumption to a captive audience ... and undermines parents by positioning family visits to Pizza Hut as an integral component of raising literate children," Linn said.

This is kind of sad. I was actually just talking about this with someone the other day. I remember the Book It! program. I read so many books through this program in elementary school, especially during the summertime. I don't remember it being that easy either. I think you had to read a good number of books, especially as you got older. So unless they are giving a pizza for every book you read, I highly doubt that this is the reason why kids today are overweight. At least with this program they won't be stupid.

Update: others agree with me. You can also buy BookIt! t-shirts.