The Book It! Program Began In The Mid-'80s The Book It! Program was the brainchild of Arthur Gunther, the president of Pizza Hut at the time, and Bud Gates, a marketing executive at the company. Literacy is important. It's a fundamental part of human civilization, but it also takes children years and years of early education to get there.
For generations of young kids, the path to that noble goal has gone through the "Book It!" program, the invention of the venerable fast casual restaurant chain Pizza Hut. All it would take to earn a free personal pizza was to read a certain number of. Bill Clinton declared an official "BOOK IT! Day" in Arkansas.
Here are some other facts about Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! program. Company lore has it that Pizza Hut began with two brothers, Frank and Dan Carney, borrowing $600 from their mom to start a pizzeria in Wichita, Kansas. The first Pizza Hut opened its doors in 1958 and the first franchised location opened two years later in Topeka.
In 1977, PepsiCo bought Pizza Hut, further marrying their food and beverage empire. Pizza Hut launched the BOOK IT! program in 1984. For 40 years, students have been rewarded with a personal pan pizza for reaching reading goals.
Trending Now 10 Throwback Facts About Pizza Hut's BOOK IT! Program If you're a person of a certain age (like I might be) and a lover of books (aka awesome), then the BOOK IT! program at Pizza Hut is probably a part of your fondest childhood memories. Pizza Hut's beloved pro-reading program, Book It! turns 40 this month. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Pizza Hut's Book It! reading program, which offers pizza as an incentive to entice kids to read. Huh, I thought. I wonder how long that thing lasted.
Pizza Hut also is the proprietor of the BOOK IT!® Program, which is a long-standing children's literacy program used in more than 630,000 classrooms nationwide. Pre-register teachers for the BOOK IT! reading program.