February 1, 2019
McDonald’s to give away Roald Dahl books with Happy Meals
by Tom Clayton

A Happy Meal: now with added literature. Photo by [email protected] licensed under CC BY 2.0
Fast food leviathans McDonald’s—already no strangers to combining books and burgers—announced this week that their New Zealand branches will replace Happy Meal toys with Roald Dahl books, as part of their latest global reading scheme.
As Hattie Gladwell reports in the Metro, “Six specially-created [read: fun-size] books will be given out to those buying Happy Meals, including Wonderful Mr Willy Wonka, Fantabulous BFG, Lucky Charlie Bucket, Matilda, Brave Little Sophie and Marvellous Miss Honey.”
An impressive 800,000 books will be given away between January and March this year. The Independent runs a quote from Jo Mitchell, director of marketing at McDonald’s New Zealand:
The Happy Meal Readers programme is all about helping parents to get their children to enjoy reading … The Roald Dahl characters are ones that many parents will have enjoyed growing up, and it’s great to play a part in introducing them to a new generation.
Tom Clayton is publishing executive at Melville House UK.