Creating Reading Rainbow

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Reading Rainbow is one of the most successful PBS children’s series in television history, earning numerous national and international awards including 26 Emmy’s and a Peabody Award. But perhaps more important than anything else, Reading Rainbow helped generations of children cultivate a love for books.

The brainchild of co-author Tony Buttino, Reading Rainbow is very much a story of humble beginnings and enormous perseverance. Over five summers, co-author Tony Buttino and his colleagues at WNED-TV, the public television station in Buffalo, New York, worked in collaboration with educators and librarians to experiment with summer reading programs. But after finding these programs inadequate, WNED staffers realized they had to create their own show. After fits and starts, and enough twists and turns to fill a children’s book, Reading Rainbow premiered in the summer of 1983 and captured the attention of 6.5 million young viewers worldwide.

Reading Rainbow Stories explores the many intriguing and homespun stories that, when woven together, reveal how this groundbreaking and iconic television series came to be. What led to the series being called “Reading Rainbow”? How did the road to Reading Rainbow wind its way through MisterRogers’ Neighborhood? How did a public television station in Buffalo spearhead a revolution in education and spark the passion for reading in millions of children? And, what does lasagna have to do with it?

Brimming with behind-the-scenes stories, never-before-seen photographs, Buttino’s own first-person tales, and original interviews with those who worked on the series’ development– from local educators and librarians to the national production team – Reading Rainbow Stories gives readers an inside look the foundational work, origin, and history of the beloved television show that still inspires readers today.