--- title: Reading Rainbow Kickstarters description: Pick up a (check)book to bring Reading Rainbow back to life canonical: https://time.com/123119/reading-rainbow-kickstarter/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-28T14:50:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:04.144Z og:title: You Can Help Bring Reading Rainbow Back to Life og:description: LeVar Burton has launched a Kickstarter to help revive the classic children's show og:url: https://time.com/123119/reading-rainbow-kickstarter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9c97eea3e306c17/6986910ecd804de061ccb0af/170573546.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Reading Rainbow's 30th Anniversary Celebration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You Can Help Bring Reading Rainbow Back to Life twitter:description: LeVar Burton has launched a Kickstarter to help revive the classic children's show twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9c97eea3e306c17/6986910ecd804de061ccb0af/170573546.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # You Can Help Bring Reading Rainbow Back to Life by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 28, 2014 2:50 PM UTC  Actor LeVar Burton attends the Reading Rainbow's 30th Anniversary Celebration Actor LeVar Burton attends the Reading Rainbow's 30th Anniversary CelebrationImeh Akpan—Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 28, 2014 2:50 PM UTC Butterflies in the sky, LeVar Burton needs your help. And all it takes is picking up book… a checkbook that is. [Burton launched a Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh) Wednesday to help bring _Reading Rainbow—_which aired between 1983 and 2006, with re-runs through 2009— back to life online. Although an iPad app was created in 2012, that’s not enough for Burton. “First, not all families have access to tablets,” the Kickstarter reads. “Our goal is to cultivate a love of reading in _all_ children, not just those that have tablets. To _reach_ kids everywhere, we need to _be_ everywhere: we need to be on the web.” Kids are reading 139,000 books a week—either on their own or through the help of a boisterous actor—on the iPad app. He hopes that the free website would increase that number and serve as a classroom tool. The Kickstarter is trying to raise $1,000,000 by July 2\. Here’s the pitch: ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/123119/reading-rainbow-kickstarter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/123119/reading-rainbow-kickstarter/"},"headline":"You Can Help Bring Reading Rainbow Back to Life","datePublished":"2014-05-28T14:50:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:04.144Z","description":"LeVar Burton has launched a Kickstarter to help revive the classic children's show online","url":"https://time.com/123119/reading-rainbow-kickstarter/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9c97eea3e306c17/6986910ecd804de061ccb0af/170573546.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9c97eea3e306c17/6986910ecd804de061ccb0af/170573546.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Reading Rainbow's 30th Anniversary Celebration","caption":"Reading Rainbow's 30th Anniversary Celebration","creditText":"Imeh Akpan—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/123119/reading-rainbow-kickstarter/","name":"You Can Help Bring Reading Rainbow Back to Life"}}]}] ```