Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! App Encourages Reading With Tasty Rewards
Pizza Hut's new BOOK IT! app rewards students with free pizzas for reading.
Pizza Hut has revamped its BOOK IT! summer reading program, encouraging kids to read in exchange for delicious rewards.
For the first time in BOOK IT!’s 40-year history, Pizza Hut now has an app dedicated to the program that encourages students to read. It is currently available in all app stores.
Per a press release, what is known as “the Summer Slide” is a dip in reading skills many children experience during school breaks. Combined over the years, research shows that by the time a student reaches middle school, they’ve lost the equivalent of two years of learning due to a loss in reading time.
The BOOK IT! app enhances Pizza Hut’s summer reading program named “BOOK IT! Summer of Stories.” This initiative officially launches June 1 and runs through Aug. 31.
The program helps parents track their child’s summer reading and supports literacy growth throughout the warmer months. Using the app, parents can set monthly reading goals tailored to students in Pre-K through sixth grade. It monitors progress and adapts to each child’s abilities.
Throughout the summer program, Pizza Hut allows young readers to earn one free Personal Pan Pizza each month in June, July, and August as they meet the monthly reading goals set by their parents or caregivers. Families can join the fun by downloading the BOOK IT! app and setting a June reading goal by June 1. From there, kids dive into their “Summer of Stories” adventure, where every book read brings them one step closer to earning a monthly pizza reward and building a lifelong love of reading.
“BOOK IT! has inspired a love for reading in millions of children since 1984,” said Lucila Cuello, chief people and culture officer at Pizza Hut U.S. “Now, with the launch of the BOOK IT! app, we’re making it even easier for parents to connect with their kids, set meaningful reading goals and inspire plenty of fun pizza-filled memories with their families. This new platform will help keep reading goals top of mind this summer — and turn progress into pizza!”
For more information about BOOK IT! and the “BOOK IT! Summer of Stories” program, visit www.bookitprogram.com. There is a limit of five Personal Pan Pizza certificates per family, per month. One certificate may be earned per eligible child, per month, for meeting their reading goal.
Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! Program Debuted in the 1980s
The BOOK IT! program was launched in 1984, thanks to Pizza Hut’s then-president Arthur Gunther and marketing executive Bud Gates. Gunther and Gates were inspired by then-President Ronald Reagan’s call for businesses to support education and by Gunther’s own experience watching his son struggle with reading.
Together, they launched a program to make literacy fun and rewarding. Soon, kids across the country were earning pizza coupons, stickers, and BOOK IT! buttons for meeting their monthly reading goals.
If implemented in a classroom throughout the year, teachers set monthly reading goals for their students. These goals can either be associated with the number of minutes, pages, or books read in a month, according to the BOOK IT! program’s website.
When a student reaches the classroom goal, the student receives a Reading Award Certificate, redeemable for a free, one-topping personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. Students are eligible for six Reading Award Certificates each year, and each certificate is valid for 30 days.
