Live reading with commentary of every item of news for kids from cartoon video website begins Friday night (3/26) to help raise $100,000 to distribute 10,000 books to at-risk children and celebrate one year anniversary

Hoboken, NJ -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/23/2021 --Little News Ears (LNE), a cartoon video news and podcast website for children, has partnered with The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) to celebrate one year of cartoon video news for kids and help raise $100,000 for culturally responsive books for deserving children. To commemorate over 1,400 news items for children and to raise money for The Children's Defense Fund, Daniel Buck, the founder of the LNE website, will offer a tongue-and-cheek 'oral history' of every news item on the Little News Ears website beginning Friday night (3/26) live on Instagram. Continuing the show beyond Friday, Buck and guests will read every news item from the website over several days while traveling from Newark to Los Angeles beginning Saturday. Buck will read items as often as he can throughout the entire journey--including on the flight--and while in quarantine in Los Angeles. Guest stars will include Michelle Voice, Timmy Ong, and David Beach, who are voice talents for the website. Viewers will have the opportunity to contribute to The Children's Defense Fund as they watch the marathon-style show.

Why watch? Buck is funny. Aside from co-creating Sketchup, a sketch comedy group at the University of Maryland, College Park, he regularly adds jokes for adults in his educational news show for children. A recent memorable moment on his show, 'BoxerBlu and Bram' was when Buck told the story of his real-life son flushing a potato down a toilet.

Little News Ears, a subscription-based website for parents, teachers, and children with limited free access, bills itself as the only cartoon video news website for children ages 2 and up. Aside from being a member of the Kids Listen podcast network, a nonprofit group podcasters, parents, and teachers who advocate high-quality podcast content for kids, Little News Ears publishes three cartoon video episodes, on average, per week. Buck, who works as a Deputy Head of School at Tessa International School in Hoboken, New Jersey, curates all episodes and provides voices for seven characters on the website. Prominent journalists have recently tweeted praise about Little News Ears, including New York Times diplomatic correspondent Lara Jakes and CNN journalist Stephanie Busari.

The Children's Defense Fund has worked relentlessly for nearly 50 years to advocate for policies and programs that improve the well-being of all children, especially those most vulnerable due to poverty, racial inequalities and lacking to access to basic services.

Little News Ears Kids Newsathon / Children's Defense drive begins on Friday (3/26) at 8 pm eastern on Instagram (@littlenewsears). A 1-minute video advertising the event can be seen here: