Read ‘em and eat: Roald Dahl stories on U.K. cereal boxes

Over the next few weeks, cereal boxes will encourage British children to read; excerpts from Roald Dahl books will appear on the boxes, championing literacy at the breakfast table.

Puffin is collaborating with Roald Dahl's estate and the supermarket ASDA to print excepts from some of Dahl's beloved works on at least 10 million cereal boxes.

Exciting passages will be pulled from such classics as "The Witches," "The Twits," and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

The excerpts, a couple hundred words each, will appear on the supermarket's own brand of cereals, replacing the puzzles, games and advertising usually found on the boxes.

Francesca Dow, the managing director of Penguin's children books — Penguin owns Puffin — says she hopes the excerpts will encourage kids to seek out entire books.

"The great thing about a cereal box, is that it potentially is reaching millions of households that just don't read any literature outside of school," she told the Telegraph.

"There could be an enormous number of children discovering Roald Dahl for the first time, bleary eyed over the breakfast table."

If the endeavour is deemed successful, the publisher hopes to partner with other supermarket chains and print literature on boxes all across the U.K.

A recent ASDA-initiated survey indicated that at-home reading has taken a backseat to TV and video games.

Dow acknowledges the fight for children's attention, and hopes exciting stories available at breakfast time will help cultivate an appreciation for literature:

"There is a real awareness in the publishing world that there is an increasingly tight competition for children's time, especially from digital activities such as games consoles, as they grow up. And combine that with anxieties about school budgets being cut and libraries closing and we need to find different ways to get books in front of children, especially children growing up in households that don't read."

(Photo credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty)