After obsessively tweeting about this topic just now, I realized that I need more than 140 characters to discuss Reading Rainbow.
Read the NPR article here. ‘Reading Rainbow’ Reaches Its Final Chapter by Ben Calhoun. Reading Rainbow really was one of my favorite shows growing up. We watched every show until we aged out (moved on to Carmen Sandiego I suppose). Love love love. I think this statement sums up what RR is,The article goes on to say that programming that teaches how to read (phonetics, etc) is still on the air, but “Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read,” John Grant says. “You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read.” It definitely made my brother and I go to the library and pick up the recommended reading lists.
A few of my favorite episodes. TEAMWORK. They sang and danced around. I love musicals so there shouldn’t be any surprise here. The featured book was A Chair for my Mother. by Vera D. Williams It was about a family who saved up money to buy their mom a chair because their house burned down. A big comfortable chair.
The hat episode, A Three Hat Day by Laura Geringer. I just remember that he went to a hat shop and could go anywhere (like you can go anywhere by reading books!) by putting on a hat. They you take the hat off and yell “HAT!” to return back to the hat shop. I think he put a knight helmet on and ended up in a jousting tournament?
Favorite book Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe” also by Vera D. Williams (who knew!). We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove… I liked how the book gave cool survival tips. I think I also really enjoyed that the moms were the hard core paddlers. Strangely enough, one of the recommended books from that episode is the Worlds to Explore: Handbook for Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts.
Abiyoyo was scary. He ate sheep and cows. Anyway. I heart Reading Rainbow. I still love to read. My love of reading comes from my mom, who probably let us sit in front of the tv watching PBS 
I haven’t seen RR anytime recently, but I have fond memories. Hopefully it continues to run in syndication and/or dvds.
