It’s official. Kids read 64,213,141 minutes in the 2011 Scholastic Summer Challenge. The summer reading program, which ended last night at midnight, gave kids a chance to read books they want to read, log their reading minutes, complete weekly reading challenges, and win all kinds of prizes like sample book chapters, audio chapters, and even virtual badges of their favorite book series.

Last week, kids broke the 2010 Read for the World Record of 52 million minutes. We had no idea that – with only a week left in the Summer Challenge – kids were going to read 12 million more minutes! It’s incredible! And it’s how it always should be.

In just a few days, we’ll be announcing the top 20 schools with the most reading minutes. These 20 schools will be featured on the home page of the Summer Challenge, here on OOM, and of course, in the 2012 Scholastic Book of World Records!

We couldn’t be more proud of the kids, parents, teachers and schools who created summer reading competitions within their own classrooms, schools, and even districts as part of the Summer Challenge.

I’m on the Summer Challenge team at Scholastic and I’m already planning for next summer’s reading program. Will kids be able to break the 2011 record of 64 million minutes and set an even HIGHER Read for the World Record? I have no doubt they will.

Did your students or kids use the Scholastic Summer Challenge? If so, what did you think of the program? Where could we improve? What did they enjoy most?