Will kids across the U.S. read 20 million words between now and July 31? Random House Children’s Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises are putting them to the test with the first annual Dr. Seuss’s Word Challenge (#SeussWordChallenge), to celebrate the May release of Dr. Seuss’s 100 First Words and to encourage summer reading. Young readers can log on to participate—and track their reading progress—on the Dr. Seuss website, where they will also find word counts for 150-plus books by Dr. Seuss and other Random House authors, reading activities, and details about “Word-a-Thon” events that are part of the Dr. Seuss’s Super-Dee-Dooper Bus Tour during June and early July.
Scripps National Spelling Bee and Carnival Cruise Lines have partnered with RHCB and DSE to support the reading challenge, which is backed by an extensive media and social media campaign, print and online advertising, and educator outreach. The Bee is promoting the challenge at its annual national competition, being held this week in suburban Washington, D.C. Events to be live-streamed on the Scripps Spelling Bee and the Dr. Seuss Facebook pages include a Seuss–themed spelling bee, celebrity author book readings, and appearances by the Cat in the Hat at the Dr. Seuss bus, which will be on-site.
To provide readers with extra incentive to read and record their word tallies, Carnival is awarding one registered challenge participant (to be selected at random) with a Caribbean cruise for four and a $1,500 Visa gift card for airfare. Two runners-up will each receive a cache of Dr. Seuss books.
Susan Brandt, president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, told PW that her organization established a relationship with Carnival several years ago, when the cruise line initiated its “Seuss at Sea” initiative. Shipboard programs include a Green Eggs and Ham character breakfast, reading activities, Seuss character parades, and photo opportunities. And recently making a splash was the Dr. Seuss-themed water park onboard Carnival’s newest vessel, Carnival Horizon. In addition to providing the Dr. Seuss’s Word Challenge’s grand prize, Carnival will host two onboard events promoting the challenge, one in June and one in July, and will track the words read by cruising guests, adding them to the word widget on the Seussville website.
The premise of the challenge—counting words read rather than books read—was inspired by Theodor Geisel’s lifelong goal of teaching children that reading could be fun, Brandt observed. “We initially wanted to think of an innovative way to help teachers and parents avoid kids’ summer reading slide,” she said. “We always try to look at things a bit differently and make programs more fun, so for this challenge we decided to set a goal with a big number. Instead of challenging kids to read a specific number of books, why not challenge them to read 20 million words? The words add up quickly for readers, which makes it much more exciting for them.”
Also fitting is the fact that the reading initiative is crafted as a challenge, given the genesis of The Cat in the Hat. Literary legend has it that Geisel was spurred on to write that classic after John Hersey, in a 1954 Life magazine article entitled “Why Can’t My Child Read?,” commented that the reading skills of American children were declining because standard primers—think Dick and Jane—were so boring. “In the article, Hersey proposed that Dr. Seuss take on the challenge of writing a primer that would not bore kids, and Ted did just that,” said Brandt. “He looked over a list of 250 words that primer readers were expected to be able to read, and the first word was ‘cat’ and the second was ‘hat.’ And so The Cat in the Hat was born.”
Meeting Hersey’s challenge in a way that was “funny and genius,” Brandt added, Seuss included 236 of those 250 words in his iconic picture book, which has helped hook generations of children on reading. But can today’s kids reach the 20 million-word mark by the end of July? “Absolutely,” said Brandt with confidence. “They will do it!”
