Pizza Hut BOOK IT!

The Book It! button from Pizza Hut wasn’t just a reading program it was basically the original childhood hustle economy. Forget “reading for personal growth.” We were out here speed-running Charlotte’s Web whilst ignoring the extremely sad details of the book. Now I’m watching my granddaughter start her own Book It! journey, and I’m getting hit with full-body flashbacks of strutting into Pizza Hut like I’d just returned from war… except the only thing I conquered was a few Nancy Drew books and my reward was a single personal pan pizza and a suspicious amount of pride.

The website was so much easier to use and understand! The app is restrictive and confusing. We have used Book It for years (inspired by my memories as a child) and up until now it was a fun, easy way to encourage children to read. The website allowed easy signup and logging reading time and it was nice to be able to print off the award for children to see and hold. The app requires you to use your Apple login - no other options. And then it requires more information than even the state requires for homeschool children. More than the state! I have to wonder if Pizza Hut wants to phase out the program and this is just one way of winding it down without a big public press release. Make it too difficult for people to sign up, their numbers will go down, and they can simply say the program isn’t getting enough subscribers to keep it running. Pizza Hut restaurants and company used to be so iconic. And Book It was so exciting as a child. Now it seems they’re just trying to stay afloat and treating their customers this way will only make it worse. It’s so sad.

My kids love to read but this app incentivized them to read even more. When it was time to claim their reward, we realized all the Pizza Huts near us were rated very poorly. We went to the best rated one in our area (of about 6 to choose from). The building exterior was literally chipping away, exposing rotten wood, and gutters hanging off. Inside it only got worse. Stains covered the ceiling, the smell of mold was intense, and brown water dripped from the ceiling. The entire building was in an awful state of disrepair. It was obvious to me that management does not care about it. What else are they probably ignoring, in the kitchen? I debated allowing the kids prize to collect their personal pan pizzas. The pizzas weren't terrible but were hard to eat, imagining the probable state of the kitchen etc. All of this occurred without me mentioning it yet my youngest wouldn't touch the pizza bc he was so put off. I am deleting the app. Pizza Hut is just gross. I'm depressed to see such an icon of my childhood become a dilapidated disappointment.