“It is good to read other books but it is so vital to continuously read and embrace African stories. We need to make reading fun and enjoyable for our children. Our stories are gold and we need to pass that on to our children, they need to know our African History ,their background and they will have a better understanding of each other and other cultures .It is so important that children are exposed to different languages and form of reading be it on a hard copy or on a device or listen to storied on audio devices “.
This is according to the renowned author, activist, actress, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author Mam Gcina Mhlophe who opened up the evening of the launch of McDonald’s happy meal readers held at Sandton City ,Kiddies Cinema by reading with a fun and exciting reading of Treetop Twins Adventures by@CressidaCowell
“Happy Meal Readers” book program, which celebrates the joy of reading and offers books as an option for Happy Meal customers. Designed with families in mind, Happy Meal Readers is important step in our journey of building a better McDonald’s. McDonald’s passion for reading dates back to 2001, starting with Sweden first introducing a children’s book offering as part of the Happy Meal bundle. Since then, additional markets adopted this practice, which we now call the Happy Meal Readers book program. To date, McDonald’s and its franchisees have distributed close to 450 million books globally through Happy Meal Readers.
Such initiative of launching books worldwide in 2019 and have partnered with globally renowned and award-winning author – Cressida Cowell-who has written an exclusive series of 12 books for McDonald’s.
“We believe that the collaboration of McDonald’s scale and Cowell’s notoriety and expertise has the ability to excite children and families around the world, making reading fun through truly together moments,” says Daniel Padiachy, McDonald’s South Africa Chief Marketing and Communications Office
The book series is authored by Cressida Cowell, world-renowned author and illustrator of the bestselling How To Train Your Dragon series, author of the Emily Brown picture books, and awardee of several literacy prizes. This new, original series – the Treetop Twins Adventures – is a collection of 12 standalone stories exclusive to participating McDonald’s and has been thoughtfully designed for children and families to read together.
During the launch the Happy Readers panel discussion embarked on a dialog that seeks to spark insightful conversation of why our children are no longer reading. This evening provided a platform where robust conversation and debate took place in an effort to interrogate some of the obstacles informing the current state of children not reading enough.
Joann DeWat, mom with of children and @McDonalds_SA Chief Operations Officer’s advice to Parents is that they should make a culture of reading a lifestyle and they should make time for their children. She recommends that parents should start reading their children bed stories books and instill the culture of reading a bible on a daily basis by buying them a children’s bible.
Well known actress, model and mother of two says she has witness with her own children that teaching children how to read out loud plays a huge role in their self-confidence and development of communication skills. …”Make time for your children, read stories for them,let teach them how to read out loud and let them own a hardcopy books.This will stimulates their imagination, boots their confidence and help them know how to express themselves well.This will also improve their reading skills“-
Gail says she still gets that’s excitement by the smell, texture of a new book and she still prefers an old traditional way of reading a book .
If reducing some of the technological device/gadget use in the house is what it takes to instill the culture of reading in her children loves, then that’s what singer, songwriter, South Africa Idols judge and a mom,Unathi Msgana will do. She says in her home library/book shelf she has so many books she has recommended or bought for herself and her children, however she has learnt allow her children to exercise freedom of choice by choosing the books they want so they can enjoy them and be eager to read them with anyone remind or forcing them to read.
As much as technology has improved/advanced I still prefers reading from hard copy books, I still prefers reading a hard copy of a book compared to reading from a tech device and I’m instilling that to my children ,however if they prefers reading from devices still its ok to embrace technology. Said Unathi
With every Happy Meal that you purchase, you now can choose between a book and a toy. Meal times just got more exciting.
This exclusive series will also be available through a digital interactive reading experience on McDonald’s Global Happy Meal App, (Happy Studio). The Happy app is available for download on the Apple Store and Google Play. For more information on the Happy Studio, visit: http://www.happystudio.com/
