The Walt Disney Company launched its DisneyHand Reading Together programme June 2003, an initiative aimed at supporting parents and caregivers in reading with their children. In addition to launching an extensive communications campaign around ten helpful tips for reading together, Disney has donated over a million books globally to nonprofit organisations with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books.

Reading Together in the United Kingdom

PJ’s Storytime: PJ’s Storytime is a brand new series launched this spring within PJ’s Bedtime on Playhouse Disney. In this series, aspirational celebrities read illustrated picture books to pre-school character PJ Mole in his Bedtime Show in a way that entertains a young audience and simultaneously encourages ‘grown ups’ to the joys of reading to pre-schoolers.

In addition, celebrities give short interviews in which they give valuable insight into their personal experiences of being read to as a child or their enjoyment of reading to their own children/grandchildren.

DisneyHand has partnered with the National Literacy Trust whose mission is to “build a literate nation” by providing a supporting network, putting ideas into practice and promoting a systems approach.


Reading Together in the Local Community

Fabrice Senac, finance analyst for the Walt Disney Internet Group Europe Middle East and Africa, tutors to a young pupil at St. Paul's Primary School. During lunchtime, once a week and throughout the school year, 25 Disney VoluntEARS tutor reading at St. Paul's and Flora Gardens Primary Schools in Hammersmith, London.

Click here to learn more about our Reading Together efforts around the world.

DisneyHand Reading Zone Printables
If you would like to print out and distribute copies of our DisneyHand Reading Zone Activity Booklet or the Student or Parent Bookmark, you can do so here. You will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader if you do not already have it. Have fun reading together!

Idea Book

Pupil Bookmark

Parent Bookmark

Instructions for printing the Pupil and Parent Bookmarks: Print out both bookmark pages from the downloadable file and use them as a master to create double sided copies on your photocopier - first run copies of page one, then flip your copies over and run page two on the back. If you have a photocopier that can automatically make 2-sided copies you can print out page one and two on the front and back of a single sheet of paper and use that as your master. Once your bookmarks have printed, cut them out and distribute. If you have access to a colour printer, print page one of the file then turn that sheet of paper over and print page two of the file onto the back. Then cut out the bookmarks. If you are able to print on a heavier weight paper or laminate your bookmarks that will make them sturdier. The file you will print out is aligned so that the sides of the bookmarks will match up, but you may need to adjust the positioning on your photocopier as all machines run a little differently.