Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Take a look! It's in a book!

I just discovered that PBS' "Reading Rainbow" has been canceled... sadness! The show ran from 1983 to 2006 with the same host, the gentle and kind LeVar Burton. PBS has been airing reruns since 2006, but the contract runs out this week.

I used to adore this show and its ability to transport me to other places (so much so that I named my book label here on FC after it). I wonder if there's a program for kids on today that celebrates reading and adventure in quite the same way? I fear not. As a kid without cable, PBS was my go-to channel, and every note of this theme song still makes me grin from ear to ear.

I think I will go and spend the afternoon curled up with a book now.



Update: Nooooooow we find out. Think Progress: Decision to end 'Reading Rainbow' traced to a 'shift' in priorities during the Bush administration. The NPR piece regarding this development this morning was really interesting, too. As someone quoted on the piece said, "'Reading Rainbow' didn't teach kids how to read, but why to read, and the administration wasn't interested."

5 comments:

  1. Butterfly in the skyyyyyyyyyy...

    Oh man. I loved LeVar! And I LOVED Reading Rainbow! RR and 3-2-1 Contact were BIG around our house!

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  2. i so wanted to be one of the kids who reviewed a book.

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  3. My ex boyfriend's older brother was in the episode where they toured Old Sturbridge Village in MA (working colonial village, everyone in costume, etc.). They're looking at colonial tools and LeVar has them guess what each one was used for. Andrew famously screamed "It's a cheese grater!" It was not.

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  4. This was one of my favorite shows growing up! I had no idea it was canceled! This breaks my heart!

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  5. This show is so wonderful. Amelia, age 3, "Mommy I want to pick a book and be one of the big kids on Reading Rainbow one day." She watched this show everyday at lunchtime last year. (I will say that our local PBS needed to do a better job of shuffling rotation of episodes-I have seen Levar at the Renaissance Fair eating a big turkey leg about 5 times ;).)

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