New York, NY — May 18, 2011 — Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, invites aspiring artists age 18 and older to submit an original artistic interpretation of what it means to Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life., the fundamental message of the company’s global literacy campaign.

The contest was launched in concert with the Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. charity art auction, open now, in which twelve top children’s illustrators created original artwork to raise money for literacy nonprofits Reach Out and Read and Reading Is Fundamental, organizations that provide books to underserved children and are suffering from recent federal funding cuts. The resulting artwork, featuring some of the most beloved characters in children’s literature, is available for auction at www.scholastic.com/readeveryday through June 5, 2011.

To enter the contest, participants will need to illustrate their own vision of the message Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life., emphasizing the importance of reading in the lives of young people. Entries must be emailed in .jpg format to onourminds@scholastic.com by 11:59pm ET on Monday, June 6.

Scholastic will judge and post the top 10 submissions to the corporate blog, On Our Minds @Scholastic for public voting on Wednesday, June 8. Public voting will be open until 9am ET on Monday, June 13, 2011. The Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. Illustrators Contest winner will have his or her artwork featured on www.scholastic.com/readeveryday and win a deluxe set of signed posters created exclusively for Scholastic by the twelve children’s book authors and illustrators participating in the auction:

• Norman Bridwell, creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog®
• Bruce Degen, illustrator of The Magic School Bus® series
• Mary GrandPré, illustrator of the U.S. editions of the Harry Potter series
• Jeff Smith, author/illustrator of the BONE graphic novels
• David Shannon, author/illustrator of No, David! and its sequels
• Jon J Muth, author/illustrator of Zen Ties and Zen Shorts
• Mark Teague, author/illustrator of the LaRue series and illustrator of the How Do Dinosaurs . . .? series
• Stephen Savage, author/illustrator of Where’s Walrus?
• Edwin Fotheringham, illustrator of Tony Baloney
• Barbara McClintock, illustrator of fairy-tale retellings
• Sean Qualls, illustrator of Dizzy
• Raina Telgemeier, author/illustrator of Smile

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. The contest is officially open to legal residents of the U.S. age 18 and older. Void where prohibited. Read the official rules here. Plans are underway for a similar contest to be run for students through Scholastic Book Clubs at the start of the 2011-2012 school year.

For more information about the artwork or to access the auction, please visit www.scholastic.com/readeveryday.

For more information about Scholastic, please visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com.

Contact:

Ivy Li
Scholastic
212.343.6402
ili@scholastic.com