McDonald's Happy Readers bus stops off in Doncaster as part of nationwide literacy campaign

As the UK’s largest distributor of free books, McDonald’s recognises that a change as little as owning a book, can change a lot about a child’s future

On Thursday, the McDonald’s Happy Readers Bus spent the day at Lakeside Village in Doncaster with ambassadors conducting live book readings and distributing free books to children and visiting families.

The bus visit is one stop on an 18 date UK-wide tour of the Happy Readers Bus, which is part of McDonald’s national literacy campaign that will see it donate half a million books to disadvantaged children across the UK in the next four weeks.

According to the National Literacy Trust, as of 2022, 1 in 5 children across the UK do not have access to a book of their own at home[, an increase of 2.3% since before the pandemic started.

The issue is considerably greater in young boys, with 21% without a book, compared to 16% of girls. A third (31%) of parents say their child reads less outside of the school term and just 31% say reading plays a central role in their child’s daily routine.

Local franchisee, Mark Clapham, who owns and operates seven Doncaster restaurants, said: “We were excited to bring the Happy Bus to Doncaster and it was great to see so many children and families enjoy it.

"It’s not nice to think that so many children are without books when the academic and emotional benefits of reading are so clear, so anything we can do to help this is important to us. I look forward to welcoming children and family’s to the restaurant, where we look forward to distributing more books that we’re sure they will enjoy.”

This year, McDonald’s is donating 500,000 free books in just four weeks, to areas across the UK that need them the most, to help ensure as many children as possible go back to school with a book in their hand.

McDonald’s book donations include favourites such as Little People Big Dreams, Hair Love and The BFG. Books will be distributed via McDonald’s restaurants and charities such as National Literacy Trust, Children in Need, Homestart and The Raheem Sterling Foundation.

Vernon Kay has partnered with McDonald’s to help raise awareness for the importance of children’s literacy. He is creating a series of special readings of some of the books available for free this year, which will go live on the McDonald’s Family Hub in September.