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Take a look! 'Reading Rainbow' is back

Mychal Threets is hosting the new iteration of Reading Rainbow, which starts Saturday.
Buffalo Toronto Public Media
/
Embassy Row
Mychal Threets is hosting the new iteration of Reading Rainbow, which starts Saturday.

After nearly two decades, the classic kids' show Reading Rainbow is back — with a new host and a new digital format, but with the same mission of encouraging children to "take a look, it's in a book."

The original show, which ran for 26 years on PBS with host LeVar Burton, won more than 250 awards, including 26 Emmys and a Peabody Award. It spurred a love of reading for generations of kids.

The new host is library evangelist Mychal Threets, who became a social media star while working as a librarian in Solano County, Calif. (His tattoos include PBS cartoon aardvark Arthur Read's library card.)

In an Instagram post, Threets wrote: "I was raised on Reading Rainbow, LeVar Burton is my hero. I am a reader, I am a librarian because LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow so powerfully made us believe we belong in books, we belong everywhere."

Buffalo Toronto Public Media, which co-created the original series in 1983, co-produced the new season, which will run for four episodes. In a bid to appeal to the media consumption habits of today's kids, the show will be available via YouTube. The first episode in the season will drop this Saturday on Kidzuko, a YouTube channel owned by Sony Pictures.

A second season of the series hasn't yet been confirmed, but a representative for Buffalo Toronto Public Media says they have high hopes.

Former host Burton has tried to reboot Reading Rainbow himself in the past — but became ensnared in legal challenges with the local PBS station within Buffalo Toronto Public Media.

Copyright 2025 NPR

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Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.