Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program and HarperCollins Publishers Join Forces With First Book to Distribute More Than 250,000 Books to Hurricane Victims; Mayor Minor Patton Hosts Book Party in Bernice, La. to Celebrate Distribution.

WASHINGTON -- Book Relief, a national hurricane relief initiative of First Book, with the help of the Pizza Hut(R) BOOK IT! (R) Program, is distributing more than 250,000 books donated by HarperCollins Children's Books, Naomi Judd and the Hallmark Channel. The books will go to children across the country who have been affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This distribution is one of a series of Book Relief distributions that will take place over the next 12-16 months and deliver more than five million new books to children and families displaced by the hurricanes, as well as to libraries, schools and other literacy organizations as they rebuild.

To celebrate this distribution, Mayor Minor Patton of Bernice, La. will be reading to students from Bernice Elementary School. This morning's book party will take place at the Union Parish Even Start located at 1508 Evans Street, Bernice, La. 71222 at 10:30 a.m. Brand new books will be distributed by Mayor Patton, First Book representatives and Pizza Hut volunteers from its Dallas headquarters to each child following the reading. Pizza Hut BOOK IT! representatives will also be on hand to read books to the children.

First Book staff will be working in Bernice all week, where the Town of Bernice has generously donated warehouse space. Volunteers from local organizations will be gathering at the warehouse to organize and pack the books for shelters and school systems working with hurricane evacuees across the country. On Thursday and Friday, December 8 and 9, representatives from local organizations will pick up books that will be distributed to thousands of hurricane victims now living in the greater Bernice area and beyond.

"First Book is grateful to the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program, HarperCollins Children's Books, the Hallmark Channel and Naomi Judd for their support in the midst of such a trying time," said Kyle Zimmer, President of First Book. "With the help of our corporate and publishing partners, we are beginning to reach into these devastated communities and rebuild some of what was lost."

"The Town of Bernice is honored to assist Book Relief, the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program and the Even Start Program with the distribution of books to hurricane victims," said Mayor Minor Patton of Bernice. "Being a small town, we didn't have monetary funds to help the evacuees, so we are thrilled to be helping by providing a distribution facility for the books. It is inspiring for the Town of Bernice to be involved in this great endeavor."

In order for BOOK IT! schools across the U.S. to be a part of the book donation, the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program challenged teachers to read aloud up to an extra hour to their students, and in return, BOOK IT! would sponsor a book for every extra minute read. An overwhelming 11,546 classrooms across the U.S. participated to help the BOOK IT! Program distribute the books.

"We were so proud of the participation from the thousands of elementary schools that took on our challenge to help donate the books to other kids by reading extra minutes in their classrooms," said Leslie Tubbs, director of the BOOK IT! National Reading Incentive Program. "This was an opportunity for our BOOK IT! readers to help us make books available to kids who may not have any or may have lost their favorite library selections in the aftermath of the storm."

"HarperCollins is proud to partner with First Book to provide underprivileged children in Louisiana with new books," said Susan Katz, President and Publisher, HarperCollins Children's Books. "This region has been hit particularly hard this year. In the midst of the everyday struggles these children continue to face, the act of reading offers a healthy diversion."

"Hallmark Channel and Naomi Judd are partners in more than a weekly television show; the network and Ms. Judd share a love of family and community," said David Kenin, Executive Vice President of Programming, Hallmark Channels. "It is our fervent hope that this small gesture of donating 25,000 copies of Naomi's newest book for children Gertie the Goldfish and the Christmas Surprise to First Book's Book Relief program will go a long way toward letting families in the hurricane ravaged Delta know that we support them in their time of greatest need."

About First Book

First Book is a national nonprofit that has provided more than 36 million books to children in need. In neighborhoods across the country, First Book unites leaders from all sectors of the community to identify the most effective community-based literacy programs reaching children living at or below the poverty line and provide them with grants of free books and educational materials. The First Book National Book Bank, a subsidiary of First Book, is the first centralized system that enables publishers to donate books and educational materials online to reach millions of children.

In response to the terrible devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, First Book launched Book Relief, the nation's most comprehensive effort to place books into the hands of children and adults from whom the recent natural disasters have taken so much. To learn more about First Book, including our Book Relief efforts in the Gulf Coast, please visit www.FirstBook.org.

About Pizza Hut BOOK IT!

The BOOK IT! Program is a reading incentive program created by Pizza Hut in 1985. The program is available to public, private and parochial elementary schools at no cost. More than 22 million children, in more than 900,000 classrooms are currently enrolled in the six-month program. For more information about BOOK IT!, call 1-800-4-BOOKIT or visit www.bookitprogram.com.

About HarperCollins Children's Books

HarperCollins Children's Books is one of the leading publishers of children's books. Respected worldwide for its tradition of publishing quality, award-winning books for young readers, HarperCollins is home to many children's classics--Charlotte's Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends and Where the Wild Things Are; popular series--A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Princess Diaries. HarperCollins Children's Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, one of the leading English language publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE:NWS)(NYSE:NWS.A)(ASX:NCP)(ASX:NCPDP). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australasia. You can visit HarperCollins Children's Books on the Internet at http://www.harperchildrens.com.

About the Hallmark Channel

Hallmark Channel is a 24-hour basic cable channel that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 71 million subscribers. The program service is distributed through more than 5,200 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel. Through its subsidiary, Crown Media Distribution, LLC, Crown also distributes titles from its award-winning collection of movies, miniseries and films for exhibition in a variety of television media including broadcast, cable, Video-on-Demand and High Definition Television.