Contact:

Sara Sinek
Scholastic
212-343-6899
ssinek@scholastic.com

Nadia Almahdi
Scholastic
212-343-6355
nalmahdi@scholastic.com

The school with the most minutes read wins a visit from Dav Pilkey,
author of the bestselling Captain Underpants series

New York, NY — April 8, 2013 — To help students avoid the "summer slide," the learning loss which can occur over summer break, Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, is launching the seventh annual Scholastic Summer Challenge, a global reading program dedicated to getting kids to read every day throughout the summer when school is out. Beginning April 8, teachers can register their students for the FREE Challenge at www.scholastic.com/summer. The top 20 schools that read and log the most minutes this summer will be featured in the 2014 Scholastic Book of World Records, and the top school will win a visit from Captain Underpants author, Dav Pilkey.

Teachers who register their students before June 30, 2013 can enter for a chance to win a classroom library.

The Scholastic Summer Challenge program has lots of FREE tools and resources for teachers to help transition their students into summer:

• Register your entire class for the Summer Challenge using Bulk Classroom Registration
• Visit your Teacher Dashboard to track students’ reading and to email parents;
• Access daily tips and enter to win giveaways on Facebook with the new Summer Challenge Calendar App;
• Download free printables, activities, and age-appropriate summer reading booklists, which includes titles chosen to meet the Common Core State Standards;
• Add a free Scholastic Summer Reading tout to your school website.

 "We know that teachers typically spend 4 to 6 weeks in the fall re-teaching material students have forgotten during the summer," said Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic. "With the new Common Core Standards raising the bar on what students are expected to know, students need to keep their minds sharp over the summer so they can go back to school ready to learn. The Scholastic Summer Challenge creates a great way to keep kids reading over the summer while giving parents the tools they need to motivate their children."

Once registered, students can start reading and logging their minutes for the Scholastic Summer Challenge at scholastic.com/summer from May 6 – September 6, 2013. Each day throughout the summer, kids can log their minutes to help contribute to the 2013 Read for the World Record, which was previously set in 2012 with 95,859,491 minutes read. All summer, kids can earn virtual prizes and enter to win fun sweepstakes.

For more information about the Scholastic Summer Challenge, please visit: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/SummerChallenge.