Raising Your Child to Be an Eager Reader

I grew up in a house full of books, thanks to a mother who loves to read. She instilled in me her love of reading by placing a bookshelf in my room (my first library!), enrolling me in book clubs, and gifting me with a subscription to Highlights magazine. Most important, she took the time to read to me, usually opening my favorite Richard Scarry or Dr. Seuss books.

Children whose parents read to them will blossom in many ways.

image source:http://bobalexrasman.onsugar.com

Learning to love to read at such a young age has proved to be an immeasurable gift to me, and it's a gift that will last a lifetime. As my mother did with me, other parents can give their children this gift by reading to them, giving them their own library, or taking them to the public library. Doreen Nagle suggests more ways for parents to "raise an eager reader" in her USA Today article, which I've reposted below.

USA Today * January 19, 2012

Parents, a Love of Reading Starts Early

By Doreen Nagle, Gannett

Learning to enjoy reading at an early age gives your child a jumpstart on her education, but schoolwork should not be the only reason to raise an eager reader. Enjoyment of reading is an important puzzle piece to a fulfilled life. Here are some fun strategies to get your children interested in the written word:

• Set aside time for reading every day. If your child is reading picture books, you can likely fit in a minimum of three and as many as nine easy ones per day (spread out through waking, nap and bedtimes). Connect the illustrations to the words in the book by running your finger under each word as you pronounce it. Exaggerate your expression and intonation and use your hands to give emphasis to the story. These actions will engage your child.
• Encourage your child to make up stories about the illustrations on the pages. Ask questions about characters, settings and plot. What does your child think will happen next? And next? These prompts will get your child to think ahead as well as think through feasible plot twists.
• Research shows that children who are most prepared for school are read to at least three times a week; even older children who can read to themselves benefit when a parent or other loved one reads to them. (Note: Don't overlook your preteens and teens. Think Harry Potter, and share family reading time with them as well.)
• Check your local library's calendar for story times and attend as frequently as possible. Being in a room with other children your child's age will increase his enjoyment of books. Also check the calendar for older children's activities at the library. Often, there are events for older elementary, tweens and teens.
• As you travel through your day look for "environmental" print wherever you go: the "Stop" in the stop sign, the "Exit" sign in the restaurant and the name of your child's favorite bookstore are part of so-called "environmental" reading. Words are everywhere. Ask your child to find three new ones each day so you can discuss their meaning and usage.
• Ask your children's teachers to give you a list of books they will be reading this year. Preview the books with your children at the library or a local bookstore so they will be familiar with them once the reading assignments begin.
• Get your child a library card. At the library, allow your children to borrow as many books as you can carry (bring along a cloth bag or container for this purpose); if they all don't get read before they need to be returned, don't sweat it. You can renew the books if your child still wants to read them (ask your librarian about the process). In addition, don't feel you must read or finish reading all the books you borrow if they turn out not to hold your child's interest.
• Start a library for your child at home. Keep your child's books accessible at eye level so he can look through them whenever he pleases. Teach your child to close books when done and how to put them back on the bookshelf.
  
• Tips from the trenches: Cooking together is a fun way to incorporate reading and bonding with your child. Have your child follow along with the written recipe. Point to an ingredient on the list and have your child match it with the actual ingredient or utensil. After dinner, read about food or cooking together.

Homeless Woman Builds Twitter Following by Using Public Library

It's become common to see homeless people at the public library. What's not so common, however, are homeless people tweeting about their existence through the use of the computers at the public library. This is precisely what AnnMarie Walsh did. Walsh had been living on the streets of Arlington Heights, a northwestern suburb of Chicago. She routinely visited the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, using the computer stations to tweet about the ups and downs of her daily life.

AnnMarie Walsh on the cover of StreetWise magazine.

image source: http://streetwise.dreamhosters.com

Eventually, she would build a Twitter following of 6,000, be interviewed by the media, and be invited to speak at conferences. The upshot of all this attention has been that Walsh has received many offers of assistance. There's been such an outpouring of support that she is no longer homeless. Walsh is now a resident of Deborah's Place, a "Chicago organization [that] offers free permanent housing to homeless women, giving them a place to stay and get their lives back on track," according to WGN TV. Now with a roof over her head, Walsh aspires to find a job and go back to school.

For more on AnnMarie Walsh's incredible story, see the WGN TV article below.

WGNtv.com * January 11, 2012

#NoLongerHomeless: Twitter Helps AnnMarie Walsh Get Off the Streets of Chicago's Northwest Suburbs

By Marcus Leshock

WGN Feature Reporter

Chicago—She found herself alone, on the streets of Arlington Heights, with nowhere to turn. Today, AnnMarie Walsh has a following 6,000 strong.

I've been following @PadsChicago for a while now. There, AnnMarie was tweeting her life as a homeless person in the Northwest suburbs. Her online diary had spread all over the country, offering an intimate portrait into a world many know little about.

How does a homeless person tweet? At the public library. AnnMarie was a frequent visitor to the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, using their computer stations to update all of her Internet endeavors. Many homeless use pre-paid cell phones to do the same.

Her tweets, Facebook updates, and blog posts were read across the world, leading to all kinds of assistance and support. She was invited to Los Angeles and asked to speak at the 140 Conference. There she stood in the Kodak Theatre, still homeless, telling the packed house how she uses social media in hopes of improving her life.

Through a series of tweet ups and meetings, she was eventually led to Deborah's Place. The Chicago organization offers free permanent housing to homeless women, giving them a place to stay and get their lives back on track, no matter how long it takes.

AnnMarie's story has taken on a viral feel-good following as of late. She was featured in the Daily Herald a few weeks ago. Mashable told her story a couple of days ago. And tonight, we'll have her on the WGN News at Nine.

So many of my stories have me running into people I'm following on Twitter - and AnnMarie's is one of my favorites. She acknowledges that there is still a long road ahead. She's dealing with mental health issues and hasn't seen her children in a very long time. She hopes to find work eventually, and even go back to school.

We watched her scroll through the hundreds of supportive tweets that came in after Mashable ran its piece. In world where we hear so much about the evils of the internet, it's always refreshing to see how much joy it can bring as well.

You can hear AnnMarie Walsh tell her story at the Arlington Heights Library on January 29 at 2pm. More information about that HERE.

And if you know somebody who could benefit from services at Deborah's Place, or want to contribute to this organization in some way, you can find them on their website HERE.

I also mentioned WeAreVisible.com in my story. Find them HERE.

And of course, follow AnnMarie on Twitter HERE.

Libraries Struggle to Meet the Demand for E-Books

More and more people are owning e-readers, either getting them as presents or purchasing them for themselves. With this increase in ownership comes an increase in demand for e-books. Keeping up with this demand is proving to be a problem for many public libraries.

Are there enough e-books to go around? Libraries and their patrons are finding that the answer is "no."

image source: http://www.engadget.com

The root of this problem is that e-books are in alarmingly short supply at public libraries due to budget constraints and the reluctance of big book publishers to furnish a sufficient number of copies (or deliver any copies at all). As a result, there are incredibly long waiting lists for the most popular titles. In many instances, patrons could get the desired books faster if they went to their local branch and checked out the paper version.

The following Washington Post article further examines libraries' "struggle to stock their virtual shelves."

Washington Post * January 14, 2012

As Demand for E-Books Soars, Libraries Struggle to Stock Their Virtual Shelves

By Christian Davenport

A seminar on mobile devices at the Reston branch of the Fairfax Country Library in Virginia.

photo: jahi chikwendiu/washington post

Kindles, Nooks and iPads can do many amazing things, but they can’t bump you ahead in line at the Reston Regional Library. In fact, if you want to borrow a book, it may be quicker to put down your sleek new device and head into the stacks.

Checking out e-books without having to leave home — just as you would buy a title online: click and boom, there it is — might be the fastest-growing segment in the library business these days. But the experience is often far from the on-demand satisfaction people have come to expect from their laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Want to take out the new John Grisham? Get in line. As of Friday morning, 288 people were ahead of you in the Fairfax County Public Library system, waiting for one of 43 copies. You’d be the 268th person waiting for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” with 47 copies. And the Steve Jobs biography? Forget it. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, doesn’t make any of its digital titles available to libraries.

Frustration is building on all sides: among borrowers who can’t get what they want when they want it; among librarians trying to stock their virtual shelves and working with limited budgets and little cooperation from some publishers; and among publishers who are fearful of piracy and wading into a digital future that could further destabilize their industry. In many cases, the publishers are limiting the number of e-books made available to libraries.

Already, the exploding demand for e-books has changed how libraries operate. Traditionally, going to the library has been like going to Wal-Mart, said Paula Isett, outreach specialist with the Maryland Department of Education, who consults with the state’s libraries.

“Everything you need and want is there,” she said. “There are unlimited books, and if a library doesn’t have a book, they can get it. . . . Our e-book library is not like that. There is such demand, and we’re struggling to keep up with it.”

Now libraries are increasingly faced with a delicate balancing act: How much of their acquistion money should be spent on print books, and how much on digital content?

Accelerating growth

Even though Maryland’s entire library system more than doubled its inventory in the past couple of years, it has fewer than 10,000 copyrighted e-books available. Meanwhile, the number of e-book checkouts across the state almost quadrupled in that time, to 266,000 last year.

Librarians are seeing the growth accelerate. In September, Amazon announced that for the first time, its hugely popular Kindle devices would be able to download e-books from libraries. In the past few weeks, there has been a post-holiday surge as millions of people unwrapped iPads, Nook Colors, Kindle Fires and other e-readers.

In the District, where the library budget has been slashed so much in recent years that the system considered closing its main branch on Sundays, e-book checkouts grew 116 percent from 2010 to 2011. And there were more checkouts in the first quarter of this fiscal year than there were in all of the previous year, said Ginnie Cooper, chief librarian of the D.C. Public Library system.

E-books now account for 2 percent of the system’s total circulation, she said. But at a recent meeting, Cooper asked her branch managers to predict what that figure would be in five years.

“The lowest prediction was 15 percent, and some said they thought it would be half of what we do,” Cooper said.

In Fairfax, officials more than doubled the inventory of e-book copies from 2010 to 2011, to more than 10,000, but demand for the books tripled in that time. Now the average wait time is three weeks. Of course, there can also be lengthy waits for hardcover and paperback books, although those waits are usually for current bestsellers while older titles are generally available.

By contrast, on a typical day, about 80 to 85 percent of the system’s e-books are checked out, said Elizabeth Rhodes, the collection services coordinator for the Fairfax library system. But after the holidays, when many people received e-readers, 98 percent of the collection was spoken for.

And thousands of books are simply unavailable — not because they’re checked out, but because many publishers have strictly limited the number of e-books made available to libraries or have withheld them altogether.

Wary of piracy and the devastation it has caused the music and film industries, Penguin recently put its new e-book titles off-limits. Like Simon & Schuster, Macmillan doesn’t make its e-book content available to libraries. And last year, HarperCollins announced that it would require libraries to renew licenses for e-books after 26 checkouts, outraging some librarians.

Several library systems have pushed back against publishers who limit their content, refusing to buy from them and speaking out about how such restrictions upend more than 200 years of collaboration between publishers and libraries to make information available to the public.

Publishers have bristled at the criticism, saying that they have long supported libraries and that there are legitimate concerns about piracy.

In November, when it announced that it was withholding its new e-books from libraries, Penguin said it has “always placed a high value on the role that libraries can play in connecting our authors with our readers. However, due to new concerns about the security of our digital editions, we find it necessary to delay the availability of our new titles in the digital format while we resolve these concerns with our business partners.”

Piracy is a real concern that has cost publishers tens of millions, said Albert Greco, a professor at the Fordham University business school who specializes in publishing.

“U.S. government departments and agencies have been hacked,” he said. “If they can be hacked, think about the local public library in Alexandria, Virginia. The odds are its firewall is not as good as the Defense Department’s.”

‘Fluid and dynamic time’

Publishers are also struggling to cope with vast changes in the industry, as brick-and-mortar stores such as Borders go under and online vendors such as Amazon have started selling e-books for far less than the print editions.

“It is a fluid and dynamic time, and many publishers are reevaluating their business model as it relates to retail and libraries,” said David Burleigh, a spokesman for OverDrive Inc., which serves as an intermediary between publishers and libraries.

In the short term, libraries may not be able to meet customer demand for e-books, he said.

“But it’s still very early,” he said. “E-books have just really grown significantly in the last couple of years. . . . Libraries have had decades to build their physical catalogues.”

Cooper, the District’s chief librarian, is confident that library e-book collections will continue to grow and that the market is just experiencing growing pains.

“I can see the day when we will make the choice to lease . . . e-book content rather than a physical copy of the book,” she said.

Until then, expect to wait.

Meg Broad, 22, a recent American University graduate, got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and immediately put herself on waiting lists for several books at the Montgomery County library, including “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell.

Since then, she’s moved up the waiting list, but as of last week, she had still not received any books. So, she said, she used a gift card she also received to buy the first book of “The Hunger Games” trilogy from Amazon.

“And,” she said, “I played a lot of Angry Birds.”

The Guys of 'Community' Got a Thing for Librarians

In this brief clip from the television show "Community," Abed (Danny Pudi) succinctly explains the "sexy librarian" thing to Troy (Donald Glover).

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library + Archives Opens

While doing research for a class project last fall, I learned that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, was constructing a special library and archives facility. Today, that facility opened to the public.

The Rock Hall of Fame Library + Archives opened in Cleveland on Tuesday.
image source: http://library.rockhall.com

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Library + Archives occupies a four-story building on the campus of Cuyahoga Community College, just 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the Rock Hall. Inside, you'll find books, magazines, audio recordings, and videos, as well as songbooks, posters, albums, photographs, personal letters, and much more.

"We hope to serve music scholars, teachers, students, and the general public," said Andy Leach, director of the facility. "We hope to see all of them here."

For more on the Rock Hall of Fame and Museum Library + Archives, see the article below.


Cleveland.com * January 16, 2012

Rock Hall Library and Archives Set to Open Tuesday

By John Soeder, The Plain Dealer


Charles Hughes, a student, looks at the Jerry

Wexler Collection in the archive reading room

at the Rock Hall Library and Archives.

Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer

They're ready to roll at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives.

The new addition to Cuyahoga Community College's Metropolitan Campus will be officially dedicated during a ceremony Monday, April 9, as part of the festivities leading up to the Rock Hall inductions April 14 at Public Auditorium.

But as of Tuesday, this unique repository will be open to the public.

"It really extends our depth in terms of telling the story and the history of rock 'n' roll," said Jim Henke, the Rock Hall's vice president of exhibitions and curatorial affairs.

"This takes it to another level, a level that's deeper than what we have at the museum," Henke said. "Our hope is that as people visit the museum, they'll be inspired to come to the library and archives, too."

Books about everyone from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix to Elvis Presley line row after row of shelves.

"When it comes to, say, the Beatles, I wouldn't be surprised if our collection is the deepest among all public libraries in the country," said Andy Leach, director of the facility.

There are eight full-time employees on staff.

"We're going to be the leading research center for anything related to American popular music, with rock 'n' roll as the focus," Leach said.

Books line the shelves at the Rock Hall Library
and Archives.Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer

You'll also find songbooks, dissertations and dozens of music periodicals, ranging from the headbanging magazine Kerrang! to the scholarly journal Ethnomusicology. Computer terminals provide access to audio-visual holdings.

Patrons won't be able to check out items, although they're welcome to peruse materials in the main reading room, an inviting space with large windows. Select artifacts from the Rock Hall are on display, too. Among the items currently on view are vintage electric guitars from Les Paul and Joe Walsh.

As of now, the catalog boasts some 5,500 items, including approximately 3,500 books, 1,400 audio recordings and 270 videos. Tens of thousands of other items are still waiting to be cataloged.

To make full use of the facility, you'll need a Rock Hall library card, which can be obtained free (with a valid photo ID) at the library.

For more extensive research, the smaller archive reading room will provide white-glove access to treasures from the archives' vaults, under close supervision and within reasonable limits. Chances are the staff isn't going to fetch Hendrix's handwritten "Purple Haze" lyrics for you to handle - unless you're a serious scholar.

Charles Hughes was in there by special appointment last week, thanks to a fellowship from the Rock and Popular Music Institute, a fledgling joint venture between the Rock Hall and Case Western Reserve University.

Hughes was poring over correspondence from record producer Jerry Wexler and other items, researching a dissertation about race and the Southern recording industry in the '60s and '70s.

"I found some documents that really connect some dots," said Hughes, a graduate student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Even the stuff that isn't directly helpful to me is super cool."

Less intense scholarship is welcome, too. Staffers gladly will field a phone call from a middle-school student who is writing a term paper about Kurt Cobain.

"We're ready for anything," Leach said. "We're here to serve everyone, from students of all ages to teachers to scholars to the general public."

Contractor Darren Hedeen installs listening

and viewing stations at the Rock Hall Library
and Archives.Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer

The library and archives occupy about one-third of Tri-C's 75,000-square-foot Center for Creative Arts, two miles away from the Rock Hall itself. Through a capital campaign, the nonprofit museum raised $12 million for its stake in the $35 million building. The college footed the remainder of the bill with state money.

Tri-C's side of the center opened in 2009, compete with state-of-the-art multimedia facilities and classrooms.

On the Rock Hall side, employees have spent two years gearing up behind the scenes for the opening.

What if you're listening to a Led Zeppelin album at a library terminal and start singing along? Will a librarian rush over to shush you? What exactly is the protocol in a rock 'n' roll library?

Leach thought it over for a moment.

"People will be doing research here, so we're going to discourage them from making phone calls," he said.

"But if somebody wants to break into song, I guess that would be alright."

Saving Indie Bookstores in the Age of Amazon

My neighborhood recently lost its only bookstore. Making this loss even more tragic is that it was an independent bookstore. It was an intimate space stacked from floor to ceiling with cheaply priced books, and the owner and staff were friendly. It had been around for years, but few outside the neighborhood knew about it. I chalked this up to poor promotion: it had virtually no online presence, didn't advertise in local media, and began hosting in-store events (sporadically) only toward the end of its operation.

WORD, an indie bookstore in Brooklyn, has thrived, thanks to an active online and social media presence, many well-publicized in-store events, and an expertly curated selection of books.

image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitchcakes/3753981022/lightbox

I feel this bookstore could have been saved (or at least prolonged its existence) if its owner had created a sophisticated-looking website and updated it frequently; actively connected with the public through social media such as Facebook and Twitter; routinely emailed customers about upcoming events; placed ads in local indie publications; and hosted in-store events on a regular basis. These events wouldn't have needed big names; they could have just spotlighted area talent. Or they could've been crafting get-togethers or movie nights (with book tie-ins) - anything to draw people to the store.

In the age of Amazon, bookstores - especially independent bookstores - have to try harder to just survive. This means establishing a lively Web presence, featuring expertly curated staff selections, and hosting more events, as Janaka Stucky suggests in his article "How to Survive in the Age of Amazon," published on the Poetry Foundation's website. It also means interacting in a more personable way with customers. At many small bookstores I've been to, the staff have acted in a gruff or condescending manner when approached. Sometimes, they've ignored me altogether. I want to support an independent establishment, but if I'm not treated as a valued customer there, I'll take my money elsewhere. It's as simple as that.

In a Big Think article, which I've reposted below, Austin Allen touches on many of these points. He further states that by catering to the needs of a particular group of people - in this case, poets and fans of poetry - bookstores can better save themselves. I don't think indie bookstores' focus has to be (or should be) this narrow to ensure their survival. (After all, countless bookstores that catered to specific populations, such as women, blacks, and gays, for instance, have gone under in recent decades.) I feel as long as independent bookstores actively make their presence known online, in print, and in the community - and they are at least polite to their customers - they'll have a fighting chance at staying alive in the age of Amazon.

Ps. I understand there are factors beyond bookstores' control, such as rent increases, that can spell doom for these establishments. But this blog and the accompanying article focus on what bookstores can do on their end to help preserve (or even grow) their business.

BigThink.com * January 12, 2012

"Humanity Over Technology": The Stucky Plan to Save Bookstores

By Austin Allen

Bravo to Janaka Stucky, whose new article in Poetry on struggling independent bookstores is both the most sensible and inspiring thing I’ve read on the subject. Stucky concedes what everyone in the industry knows, that a price war with Amazon is one small bookstores cannot win. Reasoning that these stores must therefore fight on different turf, he offers some concrete suggestions: establish a lively Web presence, feature expertly curated staff selections, and above all, host more events—that is, become a hub not just for reading material but for readings.

While not radically original, Stucky's advice is lucidly explained through anecdotes from his own experience (as the publisher of Black Ocean Press, he works frequently with indie bookshops). And where most book-business articles would rehash their theses in a neat concluding paragraph, Stucky builds instead to a rousing and unexpected finish. Since the Amazon Wars are an unusual topic for Poetry magazine, I might have seen this coming, but I didn’t:

People who read poetry are the unsung customer base for independent bookstores: they are avid readers, they love books as physical objects, they will religiously attend author readings, they read books on a variety of subjects, and they buy more books annually than anyone else I know. By catering to the type of person who reads poetry, these successful bookstores have perhaps unwittingly remained focused on what devoted patrons of bookstores really value: variety over homogeneity, literature over media, humanity over technology, and community over price…

If bookstores can learn to embrace these odd readers as secret representatives of the type of person who’s at the core of their customer base, rather than get sucked into a doomed downward spiral of price slashing on the latest best-selling hardcover, they will remain relevant and attractive to the customers they need in order to survive. Poetry, the least profitable and most esoteric of all the genres, can save the bookstore.

You can accuse Stucky of being self-serving or self-congratulatory—and can accuse me of the same, since I’m an MFA poetry student—but to me this rings absolutely true. More broadly, I think independent bookstores must seek their core customer base in the products of the modern creative writing boom. Some numerical context will help here: last year an estimated 1,400 students graduated with MFAs in poetry, compared with around 700 in 2001. That’s about 10,000 over the past decade. Now include all other genres (fiction, memoir, etc.), and you’ve got at least double to triple that number.

Combine this with writers outside of programs, and you’re looking at a vast (and growing) pool of younger people not only interested but potentially invested in the bookstore experience. Like Prairie Lights and other outfits that thrive in prominent MFA communities, small bookstores everywhere need to greet these writers with open arms. Thousands of them would be willing to offer live entertainment, in the form of readings, to as many local bookstores as their time and travel budget allow. They would do so not for pay but for the opportunity to promote books, which they’ve typically published through small presses like Stucky’s—presses which in turn are finding new ways to survive thanks to print-on-demand technology, social media outreach, and, as Stucky describes, carefully cultivated ties with select stores.

In other words, the salvation of the independent bookstore is closely linked to the salvation of the independent publisher and the independent writer. Through the enhanced connections made possible by—what else?—the Web, this already cozy relationship can and must become an exuberant ménage à trois.

[Image courtesy Flickr Creative Commons, user eflon.]

McDonald's Entering the Children's Book Business

I've mixed feelings about fast-food giant McDonald's including a children's book in each Happy Meal at its UK franchises. The pro-literacy bibliophile part of me thinks it's a great idea that should spread to the States as well. But the anti-corporation, farmers' market-going part of me that believes it's immoral how advertisers target young children really wishes it wasn't McDonald's packaging a book along with foods that aren't healthy as it still markets its "Golden Arches" brand.

The contents of a typical McDonald's Happy Meal: burger, fries, small soft drink, and a toy.

image source: http://eatocracy.cnn.com

Still, it's a step in the right direction - any action that puts books in the hands of children can't be completely frowned upon. And a similar giveaway at McDonald's franchises in Sweden proved to be a huge success. The results will likely be the same in the UK. If they are, I wonder if that will encourage McDonald's to embark on something like that in the United States. And would it be a success?

A Telegraph article on McDonald's temporarily entering the children's book business can be read below.

The Telegraph * January 11, 2012

McDonald's: UK's Biggest Children's Book Seller

McDonald's will briefly become the country's biggest retailer of children's books, after it decided to replace the usual plastic toy in a Happy Meal with a book.

Boys eating a McDonald's Happy Meal.

Photo: ALAMY

By Harry Wollop, Retail Editor

The fast food chain will give out 9 million Mudpuddle Farm books, written by Michael Morpurgo, over the next four weeks, after it signed a tie-up with the publisher HarperCollins.

In 2011, sales of children’s books averaged 1.16 million per week – 6.4 million in a four week period – which means that McDonald’s will be handing out considerably more children’s books than are usually sold in the UK in the same period.

A finger puppet, relating to the series of books, will also be included alongside the Happy Meal.

McDonald's said a similar book giveaway in Sweden had proved very popular.

This is the latest attempt by McDonald's to improve its reputation, following the decision to sell only organic milk, print calories on its menu boards, and refurbish all of its outlets.

Its Happy Meals, which cost about £2.20, have come under fire in the past for encouraging 'pester power'. Alongside a burger or chicken nuggets, chips and a drink children are given a toy, usually tied in to the latest cinema release.

McDonald's started to include bags of fruit after accusations that the Happy Meals were unhealthy.

At the end of last year an American woman filed a lawsuit in California alleging that McDonald's was luring in her daughter through its distribution of free toys.

Literacy campaigners said it did not matter if McDonald's decision was prompted by a desire to improve its image. Eight out of ten all families with young children visit the fast-food company at least once over the course of the year, so there was a strong chance they would end up with a book.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, said: “Our recent research showed that one in three children in this country don’t own a book, which is extremely concerning as there is a clear link between book ownership and children's future success in life. We are very supportive of McDonald’s decision to give families access to popular books, as its size and scale will be a huge leap towards encouraging more families to read together.”

The McDonald’s Happy Meal book promotion will include six titles from the Mudpuddle Farm range: Mossop’s Last Chance; Albertine, Goose Queen; Pigs Might Fly!; Jigger’s Day Off; Martians at Mudpuddle Farm; Mum’s the Word.