Book Stories

Books In Happy Meals

I was in my local McDonald’s today with a good friend to have a burger and a soda. It has been some time since I have been a guest there, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the burger chain feeds children quality books in their kid’s meals, Happy Meals. Usually they put plastic toys in the boxes, but toys are everywhere, but for a child who is mainly using phone, computer and tv as entertainment, I suspect books are becoming rarer. At least I have seen it with children in my family.

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According to an article in The Guardian it is the fourth year McDonald’s in America gives out books in the kid’s meal boxes. And, in my country, Scandinavian Denmark, they have been doing it for the first time in 2010. How ignorant I am of burger culture today!

HarperCollins and Reading Is Fundamental are Supporting

Nevertheless, I think it is a good idea. In USA, the books are given away in cooperation with publisher HarperCollins and the non-profit RIF, Reading Is Fundamental. Carol H Rasco emphasises to The Guardian “the need to ensure children have access to books to combat illiteracy, and the fact that simple practices like reading to them at bedtime have a huge impact on their future education”. I was always reading aloud to my boy who is now a teen and has become a reader in his own right.

McDonald’s is doing it to present the children for the universe which opens for them when a story is read to them, and to encourage them to tell stories themselves. A sceptic opinion presented in an article by the Danish Broadcast has it that McDonald’s is doing it for branding and sale promotion, and that it may ease it for parents who are hesitant towards fast food, because a book is a good thing. The book may balance the view on fast food, so that McDonald’s becomes more edible.

Barber Shop Books

Another story on books is found in Huffington Post; it tells about a barber who has children’s books in his salon so that the children can read aloud while getting a haircut. When they do that they receive $2 from the barber. “And a lot of the time those two bucks go directly into the kids’ pockets. “Parents love it and the kids … well, they like getting the two dollars back,” Ryan Griffin, the barber at the Fuller Cut who brought the discount program to the shop, told The Huffington Post with a laugh. “We get compliments from teachers all the time, too.”” The books the children read are all books with positive images of African-Americans — whether it’s astronauts, athletes or writers”.

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Become a Writer or a Journalist

I really like that. If the kid has not finished his or her book the next time around the barber has them to pick up the book and read from where they left off. “Some kids go to class and they’re afraid to read out loud, but this really builds their confidence,” says the barber Griffin. And his end goal would be met if one day a kid has become adult and comes in and tells him that because they let them read aloud in the salon, they wanted to become a writer or a journalist.

French Rail Short Stories

My last story on books is about a very novel kind of book. It comes in the shape of a long strip of paper on which a vending machine has printed a short story which may give a reading experience of 1, 3 or 5 minutes.

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There are 32 machines on train stations in France for people to kill some time in company of a good story. In the machines are over 5000 stories which are submitted for free, ranging over a number of genres - including romance, horror, comedy, and mystery. But no erotic stories. It’s all family safe. And free!

The Book is not Dead

I am happy to conclude from these three glimpses that the book and the telling of stories is not dead. I think we will continue telling stories with printed words which are appealing to our fantasy and imagination. Long live the story and the book!

The Secret Room

Oh, I do have one more short mention. Kimberly Yam writes in Huffington Post: ”“Hemmelig Rom,” which translates to the “Secret Room” in Norwegian, is a guest house for photographer Jason Koxvold’s vacation home in upstate New York. The single-room cabin, completed in 2015, is lined with more than 1,000 books, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in a cozy reading experience.”

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