McDonald's is set to become the United Kingdom's biggest book distributor, offering children's books as the world's shittiest "toy" that comes with its Happy Meals.

Today the restaurant behind such stuff as dreams are made on, began a five-week promotion during which it will hand out a series of non-fiction books with Happy Meals. By the end of next year, McDonald's will have given away 15 million books to little Dickensian orphans, or whatever else constitutes a "British child." Time reports this promotion follows a pilot program last year that gave away a total of 9 million books.

So what sinister reason does McDonald's have for making children read? Britain's National Literacy Trust director Jonathan Douglas tells the Telegraph it's for their "success:"

Our research tells us that there is a very clear link between book ownership and children's future success in life, so it is very concerning that one in three children in the UK doesn't own a book, and half of kids don't really enjoy reading.

Initiatives like McDonald's Happy Readers campaign play an important role in getting more books into the hands of children, and inspiring families to read together as a fun and interactive pastime.

Clearly Britain is thinking about re-colonizing America with a child army of big cat, astronomy and oceanographic (subjects covered in the books that will be handed out) experts. Right now, there are no plans to extend the program to the overweight youth of America.

[Image via AP]