--- description: Now through February 15 title: McDonald's Will Serve Happy Meals With Books Instead of Toys image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt368a8a835a3e9ea0/69887c020a4a2288449c8371/gettyimages-508078262.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # McDonald's Will Serve Happy Meals With Books Instead of Toys by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 3, 2016 7:00 PM CUT  An illuminated sign stands outside a McDonald's restaurant, operated by McDonald's Holdings Co. Japan Ltd., in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016\. In an effort to win back customers after a series of food scandals, including a human tooth in a serving of french fries, McDonalds Japan has come up with a surprise; white-and dark chocolate-covered french fries. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images An illuminated sign stands outside a McDonald's restaurant, operated by McDonald's Holdings Co. Japan Ltd., in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016\. In an effort to win back customers after a series of food scandals, including a human tooth in a serving of french fries, McDonalds Japan has come up with a surprise; white-and dark chocolate-covered french fries. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesKiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 3, 2016 7:00 PM CUT Trying to get your kids to read more? You might want to take them to McDonald’s, where they’ll get a book instead of a toy in their Happy Meals, now through Feb. 15\. Fair warning: you might want to tell them in advance, because they just might throw a fit when they find a paperback instead of a shiny plastic toy. According to[ the Los Angeles _Times_,](http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-mcdonalds-happy-meals-books-20160201-story.html "undefined") McDonald’s is including four different books in this experiment. Three of them are Valentine’s Day themed: _Clark the Shark Takes Heart_ by Bruce Hale and illustrated by Guy Francis, _Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse!_ by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond, and _Pete the Cat: Valentine’s Day Is Cool_ by Kimberly and James Dean. The fourth book is the classic [_Paddington_](http://time.com/3667559/paddington-bear-trivia/ "undefined") by Michael Bond and illustrated by R. W. Alley. This is the third time the fast food chain has served miniature paperbacks instead of plastic toys in its Happy Meals. By the time this year’s giveaway is over, McDonald’s will have distributed 50 million children’s books. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4206461/mcdonalds-happy-meals-books/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4206461/mcdonalds-happy-meals-books/"},"headline":"McDonald's Will Serve Happy Meals With Books Instead of Toys","datePublished":"2016-02-03T19:00:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:40.585Z","description":"Now through Feb. 15","url":"https://time.com/4206461/mcdonalds-happy-meals-books/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Business topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt368a8a835a3e9ea0/69887c020a4a2288449c8371/gettyimages-508078262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt368a8a835a3e9ea0/69887c020a4a2288449c8371/gettyimages-508078262.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"McDonald's Offers Japan Chocolate Fries While It Mulls Unit Sale","caption":"McDonald's Offers Japan Chocolate Fries While It Mulls Unit Sale","creditText":"Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4206461/mcdonalds-happy-meals-books/","name":"McDonald's Will Serve Happy Meals With Books Instead of Toys"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Should I Eat French Fries?","description":"A record number of experts weighed in on this one, and regretfully, 7 out of the total 9 give French fries a firm thumbs down.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/kL7utfHP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-10T22:49:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kL7utfHP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4206461/mcdonalds-happy-meals-books/","duration":"PT2M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4206461/mcdonalds-happy-meals-books/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```