Happy Meal, Happy Reader?

In recent international news that didn’t make the front page in Ottawa: MacDonald’s in the UK is set to become that country’s biggest children’s book distributor. On January 9 it launched its Happy Reader campaign. The goal: to hand out 15 million books by the end of 2014. And it’s being sneaky about it: the books are the “prize” in every Happy Meal, replacing the usual much-coveted-but-soon-thrashed "collectible" toys. The initial campaign runs for 5 weeks, till February 12.

The spur was data compiled by Britain's National Literacy Trust, which showed that half of British kids didn’t really like reading and about a third didn’t own a book. Surprising from the land of Shakespeare, British children rank 25^th in world literacy tests. (The OECD ranking places Canada 6^th – above OECD average -- and the US 17^th .)

The first phase of this long-term campaign features non-fiction books, from DK Books' Amazing World Series, with categories of Stars and Planets, Big Cats, and Oceans, among others. The books also come with puzzles and stickers.

Want to read more? The meals also come with a voucher that children – given a payment of £1-- can redeem for a book of their choice at bookseller WH Smith. And throughout the year, new ‘Happy Readers’ book offers will be displayed on Happy Meal boxes, for redemption at WH Smith. And if your child is hungry for information rather than fries, MacDonald’s is also selling the books in its UK restaurants.

This campaign follows a successful pilot in 2012 that saw 9 million books given away.

But is the book giveaway a good thing? Obviously not every thinks so, pointing to the growing obesity crisis in the UK  and the high caloric value of Happy Meals?

As the grand-mother of a 5- and 8-year old who love books, I can only wish MacDonald’s exported this campaign to North America.