Super WHY! – Hurray for Heroes, a Special Two-hour Marathon on PBS Kids
This Memorial Day, fans young and old across the nation can celebrate heroes with Super WHY! – Hurray for Heroes, a special two- hour marathon airing Monday May 25, 2009 on PBS KIDS® (check local listings). Super WHY! – Hurray for Heroes will delight preschoolers with two debut interactive episodes and two returning favorites, featuring the page-turning storybook adventures of Super Why and his fellow reading superheroes as they unveil what the power of reading can do. The special event also features never-before-seen live-action interviews in-between the episodes in which real kids share their thoughts about what it means to be a hero.
The special Super WHY! – Hurray for Heroes TV event kicks off a jam-packed summer of reading-powered fun that also will feature special Super WHY! theme weeks, online games and free downloadable materials designed to help families reinforce the literacy skill building lessons within the series and help nurture their own “super readers” at home.
“We created Super WHY! to provide kids with superhero role models they can relate to – who show them the power of reading and that they, too, can look for answers to life’s challenging questions and problems within books,” said Angela C. Santomero, Creator and Executive Producer of the series. “Memorial Day provides a perfect opportunity for us all to reflect on and honor all kinds of heroes and we’re delighted to bring Hurray for Heroes to PBS KIDS. The summer months are also the perfect time for preschoolers to hone their budding reading skills and we’re pleased to offer a number of great ways for them to do so all summer long.”
In the action-packed, two-hour Super WHY! – Hurray for Heroes TV event, Super Why and his heroic storybook friends help a fairytale knight face his fears in the launch of George and the Dragon, travel “over the river and through the woods” in Little Red Riding Hood, jump into a book for an interactive island adventure in the debut of The Swiss Family Robinson, and show a stranded princess how to rescue herself in Rapunzel.
Leading up to the on-air event, PBS KIDS will feature an all Super WHY! video player at pbskids.org/video where children can view their favorite clips from the show. Kids can also play fun reading games on the Super WHY! Web site which will launch the new Wonder Red‘s Freeze Dance Rhyming Game (http://pbskids.org/superwhy).
The storybook adventures continue in June with the kick-off of a “super” special summer reading campaign that will engage kids and caregivers through Super WHY!’s interactive Web site at pbskids.org/superwhy, and through thousands of libraries across the U.S. Throughout the season, week-long Super WHY! Reading Camps will boost the early literacy skills of preschoolers in communities from coast-to-coast with learning-rich activities, games, and music. In August, PBS KIDS will focus on a different Super WHY! character each week and feature never-before-seen episodes of the top-rated show.
Reading is power and Super WHY! is the only preschool property created to help kids learn the fundamentals of reading through interactive storybook adventures. Produced by Out of the Blue Enterprises in conjunction with Canadian-based Decode Entertainment Inc. and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures Inc., the series has a fresh, groundbreaking multimedia aesthetic – with a winning combination of two- and three-dimensional animation formats, adorable characters and immersive environments. The program represents a unique approach to preschool educational television, featuring a team of superhero characters with literacy-based powers, who jump into books to look for answers to everyday preschool challenges. The home viewer is the superhero sidekick, who is encouraged and empowered to participate in the reading fun by playing research-based literacy games.
