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Publishers Weekly Children's Features

Pediatricians, ABA to Recommend Reading
Cindi Di Marzo -- 10/20/97
Beginning this November, a collaboration brings together the ABA, Scholastic, pediatricians, booksellers and, most importantly, young readers with a national Read to Your Bunny program.
Prior to kickoff, ABA member bookstores are being offered, through the ABA, promotional preview paperback copies of bestselling author Rosemary Wells's upcoming Read to Your Bunny (Scholastic). When booksellers sign up for the program, they will receive 100 free books, two free posters and an information kit. The kit contains "prescription" coupons, which in turn get passed on to nearby pediatricians, well-baby clinics and other child-care centers. These health-care professionals are asked to distribute them to parents and guardians, who can redeem the coupons for free copies of Read to Your Bunny at the participating stores up until March 1998, when Wells's book officially hits the stores in hardcover.

According to Oren Teicher at the ABA, a number of separate initiatives, as well as serendipity, went into the formation of this program. Teicher explained that last winter, First Lady Hillary Clinton held a meeting at the White House that was attended by members of the Association of American Publishers, the National Academy of Pediatricians, the American Library Association and the Boston-based literacy organization, Reach Out and Read. This meeting led to the formation of the national Prescription for Reading Partnership program.

President Clinton had previously announced his America Reads Challenge as a major component of his presidential campaign last fall. A number of publishers signed on as sponsors to this challenge, including Scholastic. These two strands came together in a conversation that Teicher had with Dick Robinson, Scholastic's CEO, at the AAP meeting last March, in which the two discussed the possibility of a joint literacy initiative between Scholastic and the ABA.

The third element, which according to Teicher put the program into focus, was Wells's book, which everyone involved felt would be a perfect incentive because of the story's emphasis on reading. Teicher added that Wells is so well-known and a favorite author of many ABA member stores that the ABA considered the choice of book a very attractive aspect of the program.

Since many stores will be able to sell more than the 100 free copies, additional books will be available at cost. The ABA has also compiled a list of suggestions for further read-aloud sessions, which includes 19 bestselling and classic titles such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., illus. by Lois Ehlert (S&S), and More More More, Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams (Greenwillow), divided into three categories: baby, toddler and preschool.

The ABA, which is doing the program's fulfillment, has received orders for over 200,000 copies of Read to Your Bunny from participating stores. The cutoff date for joining the print run, which will not be repeated, was October 10.
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