Pizza Hut’s flagship community involvement program – Book-It! – is back for 2026. It’s designed to encourage kids to read over the summer holidays… And as someone who hopes everyone will read her work, I heartily approve!
‘The Summer of Stories Is Back!’ reads the headline on the Book It! Instagram account.
And that means it’s time to enrol your elementary school aged children in the world’s longest-running summer reading program.
One reason for Book It!’s success may be that it doesn’t just give gold stars for big readers – it rewards them with Pizza Hut pizzas. Kids who reach their reading goals can get a free personal pan pizza per month.
Book It! runs now through August 31. Visit the website to enrol your kids…
But Millennials protest!
Unlike previous years, there is another side to the Book It! program this summer.
Millennials – whose own kids are starting to go to school – are remembering the great summers they spent ‘reading for pie’ when they were K-6 age. And they’re all-in for the program…
“As an ’80s/’90s kid, Book It was huge. I’d fill up that button with stickers every year,” shared one fan.
“I’ve had pizza from around the world. Nothing has ever tasted as good as that personal pizza earned through Book It. It tasted like cheese, pepperoni, and knowledge,” wrote another.
But some millennial commenters lament the lack of something similar for grownups…
“Ok but what if we don’t have kids and want to participate? Asking for myself and my inner child who loved this program,” wrote another fan. “Can us Gen X and millennials get this back for us!!! Us big kid need pizza too,” a third parent pleaded.
My take
The past decade has seen an eruption of calls from parents, employers and post-secondary educat-ors for more-effective reading and language skills training for our kids. The Book It! program goes a small way towards filling the gaping hole in our kids’ reading, writing – and thinking – skill sets.
But what we really need is to give teachers back the authority and the means to effectively discipline the children under their tutelage – and require that kids demonstrate actual competence in their communications skills to advance.
Are there any politicians out there brave enough to propose such legislation in their jurisdictions?
~ Maggie J.