I LOVED Reading Rainbow as a kid. I watched it all the time and would love catching the re-runs because I would get a chance to re-read the books.
Reading Rainbow exposed me to books that I otherwise would not have been exposed to because my immigrant parents were not very well-versed in children's literature, especially since they were learning English themselves. I was introduced to some of my now-favorite children's books - Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash, A Chair for my Mother, etc. (Here is a link to the episode for A Chair for my Mother that I found on youtube.) I can actually still visualize specific pages of books with it's simple animations.
I don't remember the live action parts with LeVar Burton as much, but apparently that was a big part of each episode. I didn't realize that the rest of the episode centered around a theme from the book. Smart!
I do remember looking forward to the end of the episode when Levar would say, "Don't take my word for it..." and then kids would recommend other books to read. The best recommendations for kids are ones that come straight from the kids' mouths.
After doing some research on what happened to Reading Rainbow, I didn't realize that it kept on playing until 2006. I wish there was something like it on TV now, but the kids would probably have e-Readers or something, huh?
One part of who I am as a reader today is because of Reading Rainbow and for that, I am grateful to the show and PBS for airing it for so long.
And who could forget the theme song?!
"Butterfly in the sky!
I can go twice as high!
Take a look, it's in a book...
A Reading Rainbow!
I can go anywhere!
Friends to know and ways to grow...
I can be anything!
Take a look, it's in a book...
A Reading Rainbow!"
Did you watch Reading Rainbow as a kid?
What was your favorite episode/book?
What was your favorite episode/book?
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