# McDonald’s to distribute 9 million Morpurgo books in Happy Meals

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/01/11/mcdonalds-distribute-9m-morpurgo-books-happy-meals/
- Published: 2012-01-11T11:40:04+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

![](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/files/images/news/morpurgo_mudpuddle_farm.jpg)

In an initiative supported by The National Literacy Trust (NLT), McDonald’s UK is
to give away around nine million books by Michael Morpurgo, the former children’s
laureate and author of ‘War Horse’. The author will donate all his royalties on 
the books to the charity [Farms for City Children](http://www.farmsforcitychildren.org).

The books will be given away in Happy Meals between 11 January and 7 February 2012.
Titles from the ‘Mudpuddle Farm’ series are on offer, including ‘Mossop’s Last Chance’
and ‘Martians at Mudpuddle Farm’. Each book comes with a finger puppet to help parents
bring the stories to life for their children, and to encourage children of all reading
abilities to use their imagination and create their own tales.

The promotion is part of a new partnership between [McDonalds](http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/promotions/Happy-meal.html)
and publishing company HarperCollins, and is designed to get books into the hands
of families and support parents in reading with their children. The NLT’s support
follows its research finds last December which reported that almost four million
children in Britain (one in three) do not own a book.

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Jonathan Douglas, Director of The National Literacy Trust, commented: “We are very
supportive of McDonald’s decision to give families access to popular books, as its
size and scale will be a huge leap towards encouraging more families to read together.”

www.literacytrust.org.uk

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