A few weeks ago, all hope in humanity was lost when crowd funding pages sprang up on the Internet to spring the “handsome felon,” Jeremy Meeks, from jail.  However, our faith in humanity was restored when our childhood fave, Reading Rainbow, pulled a Jordan/Jay Z and announced that they were planning a comeback.  They subsequently set up a Kickstarter page, which proved to be the most-backed project ever in Kickstarter history. 

The Kickstarter campaign was a massive success from the beginning, reaching its $1 million goal in a mere 11 hours.  And it didn’t stop there–this evening, with two more days left to go, it reached a over a whopping $4.5 million, with over 92,000 backers.  That’s more than any other Kickstarter campaign in history.

Reading Rainbow, which aired from 1983 to 2006, aims to come back full force as an app, in order to reach every web connected child.  ”Today’s kids want today’s technology,” reasoned Levar Burton, RR’s host and executive producer.

The return of Reading Rainbow could have monumental ramifications for society, especially in lower income neighborhoods, where books are scarce–so scarce, in fact, that there’s an average of one book for every three hundred kids.  A child without books can’t become an engaged and capable reader.

Literacy is one of the best predictors of future success for children.  Low literacy skills have been linked with the dire consequences of poor educational, employment and health outlooks.

Recognizing the importance of reading, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has even pledged to match every dollar over the $4 million mark with his own money.

Now if only we can get The Magic School Bus back…

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