By Kayla DeKraker
Millennials rejoice — the READING RAINBOW is back! After over 20 years off the air, the hit children’s educational show will return with a reboot.
The original show aired in 1983-2006 with LeVar Burton as host. Now Mychal Threets, a social media personality and librarian, will lead the reboot.
Threets went viral in 2023 on social media thanks to his kind personality and story-telling abilities. In a post to Instagram, he expressed his excitement to be the new host of the show.
“There have been two hosts in the history of READING RAINBOW. The Legend of Literacy, LeVar Burton! And…me, Mychal Threets, a librarian,” he began. “I was raised on READING RAINBOW, LeVar Burton is my hero. I am a reader, I am a librarian because LeVar Burton and READING RAINBOW so powerfully made us believe we belong in books, we belong everywhere.”
Related: READING RAINBOW Doc BUTTERFLY IN THE SKY Gives ‘Inside Look’ at Show
He added, “I am so happy for all of us that READING RAINBOW is returning! YOU all did this! We’re flying twice as high, butterflies in the sky! Stay tuned.”
People in the comment section showed excitement as well.
“Lemme dust off my library card real quick,” one person said. Another user added, “You are going to make him — and the rest of us — so proud! You are exactly the host the world needs!”
Literacy rates have been declining in the U.S., so a show that encourages reading is exactly what we need.
This year’s “The Nation’s Report Card” revealed reading scores are continuing to drop, stating, “In 2024, average reading scores on The Nation’s Report Card declined by 2 points for both 4th and 8th grade students compared to 2022. This steepens the 3-point decline seen in both grades between 2022 from 2019.”
S.C Patrick Kelly, a teacher of AP U.S. Government and Politics, said of the problem, “Student academic achievement is the cornerstone of national success and security. This makes a lack of academic progress today a direct and urgent threat to our collective future.”
He added, “The continued declines in reading scores are particularly troubling. Reading is foundational to all subjects, and failure to read well keeps students from accessing information and building knowledge across content areas.”
The new version of READING RAINBOW promises to reintroduce the joy of reading, a much-needed improvement in our overstimulated and screen-time obsessed society.
Parents.com reported, “In 2011, researchers found that watching nine minutes of fast-paced programming could impair a child’s executive function, which is the set of cognitive skills needed for impulse control, planning and organization, task initiation, memory, and flexibility.”
Hopefully, the READING RAINBOW reboot will emphasize slower-paced content that truly inspires a love of books. It premieres on Oct. 4 on YouTube on the Kidzuko channel.
Read Next: READING RAINBOW LIVE Reboot Premieres Without LeVar Burton
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