New York, NY — July 30, 2009 — This summer Scholastic, together with Save the Children’s U.S. Programs and the National Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, launched the Scholastic Summer Challenge (http://www.scholastic.com/summer). Since the free summer reading program started on April 30th, more than 59,000 kids have accepted the Challenge and registered to read for fun and help children in need. Kids have logged 64,000,000 minutes spent reading, and there’s still one more month to go!

"The thousands of kids who have taken the Scholastic Summer Challenge are keeping their learning skills strong so they’ll be ready to keep advancing when they return to school," said Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic. "They've grown into a great online reading community, recommending books to one another, sharing fun experiences with books, and encouraging their teammates to keep reading."

In addition, Summer Challenge readers have been learning about critical issues kids face in the areas of early childhood development, literacy, physical activity and nutrition and emergency preparedness and response, which are at the core of Save the Children’s work in the U.S. At the end of the summer, Scholastic will make a financial contribution to Save the Children’s U.S. Programs on behalf of all the participating readers and the winning Summer Challenge team will vote on which issue Save the Children works on will receive an extra donation of books!

Kids have also been reading kid-authored book reviews, watching celebrity videos about summer reading, plus entering sweepstakes for a chance to win books from Scholastic, (http://www.scholastic.com/summersweepstakes), free bonus points from SmartyCard, redeemable for real rewards (http://www.smartycard.com), and membership to Kidzui, the Internet for kids (http://www.kidzui.com). Thirty-eight gubernatorial spouses and one governor joined the Challenge as Reading Ambassadors, hosting summer reading events in their home states.

About Scholastic

Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and a leader in educational technology and children’s media. Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teaching resources, television programming, film, videos and toys. The Company distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs and school-based book fairs, retail stores, schools, libraries, television networks and the Company’s Web site, www.scholastic.com.

Media Contacts

Scholastic
Jennifer Boggs
212.343.6619
jboggs@scholastic.com

Scholastic
Amanda Hebert
212.343.6657
ahebert@scholastic.com

Visit www.scholastic.com to learn more about Scholastic. Visit www.scholastic.com/summer to learn more about the Scholastic Summer Challenge.