Thursday 6th February 2020: McDonald’s Australia has today announced the launch of a permanent book option with every Happy Meal. From February, each time a Happy Meal is purchased, the customer will be able to choose between a toy or a Cressida Cowell book.

Renowned author Cressida Cowell (How To Train Your Dragon) has written an exclusive series for the McDonald’s Happy Meal Readers program. The first two books in the Treetop Twins Wilderness Adventures series are available in restaurants nationwide from today. Ten further books as part of this limited-edition series will be released during the year.

The Happy Meal Readers program celebrates the joy of reading and aims to help inspire a lifelong love of reading for kids. Australia introduced the Happy Meal Readers program in 2009, offering special times each year where customers could choose between a book or toy with their Happy Meal. Building on the program’s popularity, customers will now permanently have the option to choose a book as part of their Happy Meal.

Jo Feeney, Marketing Director at McDonald’s Australia says, “We know how important choice is to our customers at Macca’s. We are very excited to be using our scale for good to help inspire a passion for reading through the expansion of our Happy Meal Readers program to offer a book option year- round.”

The new series will contain 12 books that follow the stories of the Treetop Twins as they explore the world and undertake new and exciting adventures. Each book features key reading tips from the Australian Federation of SPELD Associations (AUSPELD), which provides essential support to children and adults with learning difficulties across the country.

Mandy Nayton OAM, Chief Executive Officer of AUSPELD says, “We are proud of our partnership with McDonald’s, allowing us to together continue to spread creative and entertaining stories around Australia, while also encouraging a love for reading. We know that reading for fun assists in the development of important foundation skills in literacy and the role that parents can play in this is significant. We hope that through this initiative, we can help adults share the gift of reading with children throughout the country.”

The first two books in the Treetop Twins Wilderness Adventures series will be available from February 6th with the purchase of any Happy Meal at all McDonald’s restaurants across Australia.

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For further information please contact:

Emma Murphy | emma.murphy@thisismango.com.au | 0488 665 447

Leah Eastment | leah.eastment@thisismango.com.au | 0448 728 747

Notes to editors:

The Treetop Twins Wilderness Adventures series is written by Cressida Cowell and contains 12 books in total

Book 1 – The Twins Follow a Polar Bear (in restaurant 6th February)

Book 2 – The Twins Meet a Quagga (in restaurant 6th February)

Book 3 – The Twins Help a Pink Dolphin

Book 4 – The Twins Discover a Dodo

Book 5 – The Twins Walk With a Woolly Mammoth

Book 6 – The Twins Track a Tiger

Book 7 – The Twins Greet a Great Auk Book 8 – The Twins Meet a Monkey

Book 9 – The Twins Pursue a Penguin

Book 10 – The Twins Run After a Rhino

Book 11 – The Twins Watch a Whale

Book 12 – The Twins Seek a Saola

About AUSPELD

AUSPELD, the Australian Federation of SPELD Associations, has been providing support to children and adults with learning difficulties, including dyslexia, for over 50 years. With Associations across Australia, AUSPELD responds to over 100,000 requests for advice and assistance each year and provides training on evidence-based literacy and numeracy instruction to thousands of teachers, in every state and territory, on an annual basis. One of AUSPELD’s principle aims is to ensure that all Australian children, including those facing additional challenges, are given the opportunity, and necessary support, to learn to read. For more information about AUSPELD and the essential services we offer, visit www.auspeld.org.au or the AUSPELD Facebook page.

AUSPELD top tips for reading with children:

• Children of all ages love being read to, even once they become strong readers. Reading a story together provides an opportunity to travel to new and exciting places, consider the way things make us feel, or discover just how amazing life can be.

• If your child can read, try taking turns to read sentences or paragraphs. If they come across a word that is too difficult to read, ask them to break the word into syllables and then sounds, and then blend the sounds together to make a word.

• Talk about the story, for example: what happened in the story, what did the main characters discover or learn, and what did your child like or not like. Encourage discussion by building on what your child says.

About McDonald’s Australia

Australia’s first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Yagoona, Sydney, in 1971. Today there are over 980 McDonald’s restaurants across Australia, nearly 85 percent of which are franchised and run by local businessmen and women. The organisation employs more than 105,000 people in restaurants and corporate offices Australia- wide and is the largest employer of youth in the country. McDonald’s creates more than 3,000 new jobs each year and spends over $40 million per annum on training and people development.

For more information visit www.mcdonalds.com.au or www.facebook.com/McDonaldsAU. McDonald’s is also on Twitter – check us out at Twitter.com/maccas.