Pizza Hut Is Giving Away 1 Million Pizzas Through Its 'Book It!' Program — Here's What to Know

Pizza Hut really wants you to have a nice, warm, tasty pizza. All you need to do is promise you'll read a book in exchange. 

On Tuesday, Pizza Hut announced the return of its Book It! program, which is celebrating its 40th year, adding that this year, it's giving away 1 million personal pan pizzas throughout National Book Month (aka all October long). The program, the pizza chain explained, began in 1984 and has helped ignite "a passion for reading in millions of children." But now it's expanding the program to readers of all ages with its limited-time offer of a free Personal Pan Pizza, which you can get with an $8 minimum purchase.

“I’m incredibly proud of what the Book It! program has achieved over the past four decades," Carl Loredo, the president of Pizza Hut U.S., shared in a statement provided to Food & Wine. "It’s inspired more than 70 million children to discover the magic of books, helping to build a lifelong love of reading. As we’re celebrating 40 years, we’re excited to invite readers of all ages to rediscover the joy of reading — one book (and pizza) at a time.”

Pizza Hut additionally noted that while it's happy to bring the program back year after year, it's also evolved it to meet the "modern educational needs, offering digital reading logs and virtual classrooms to make it even easier for schools and families to participate." 

The program is completely free to join. Pizza Hut is encouraging both parents and educators to sign up on behalf of their students at bookitprogram.com.

As for how many pizzas it's given away over the last 40 years, Pizza Hut estimates it's somewhere in the 1.5 billion range, noting that over the last decade alone, it's delivered more than 56 million Personal Pan Pizzas, or "enough to stretch from coast to coast in the U.S. twice." 

Both Pizza and reading fans can use the code “BOOKIT40” at checkout online or on the app to redeem their free Personal Pan Pizza (again, with an $8 minimum purchase) from October 1 to October 30. You can also order the Book It! Bundle both on the app and the website, which includes two large, one-topping pizzas and breadsticks. For every bundle sold, Pizza Hut will give a portion of the proceeds to the Book It program, so go ahead and get more pizza.