As per usual Monday, I'm spending a bulk of my boring afternoon catching up on my blog reading. (Google Reader is the best, double true) What a total shocker to read on Omnivoracious that Reading Rainbow is ending its 26 year run!
Memories of Reading Rainbow and Levar Burton dominate my childhood. The show's apparent demise, besides funding, is that it assumes children already know how to read and focuses on fostering a love of books. There isn't a large enough audience for this anymore. Now, there is a need for shows that teach phonics and how to read. As Omnivoracious points out, teaching kids how to read without also instilling a love of books seems sort of counter intuitive. Not completely, but sort of.
For me, Reading Rainbow's main objective was a complete success. I LOVE books. (See: Shelfari) (See: This blog) And, I'm pretty sure that it was Reading Rainbow that led me down the path I'm on right now, starting with Aunt Eater Loves a Mystery (which, by the way, I read because it sounded AWESOME on RR. It scared the crap out of me!) and ending with me and my butt, in this chair, reviewing submissions for children's books.
So, seriously Reading Rainbow. Seriously. Thank you.
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