Scholastic, PBS Kids and iVillage are once again joining forces to keep reading top of mind for kids this summer.

The children’s educational media brands are teaming with the mom-oriented online community to run two US-based summer reading challenges, the Scholastic Summer Challenge and the iVillage PBS Kids Summer Reading Community Challenge.

Kicking off on April 27, the Scholastic Summer Challenge is a free reading program designed to boost the academic skills that many children tend to lose during summer vacation. Now in its fifth year, the challenge encourages kids to log the minutes they spend reading and the 20 schools with the most minutes logged will receive recognition in the 2012 Scholastic Book of World Records. Kids can participate in weekly challenges, earn digital rewards and enter sweepstakes to win prizes.For the second year in a row, Wordgirl, the lead character in the PBS Kids Go series of the same name, will serve as the national campaign’s ambassador.

Tapping into the 30 million monthly unique visitors on iVillage, the iVillage PBS Kids Summer Reading Community Challenge will run from June 6 to July 15 and will features free literacy-building resources for parents and children designed by experts at PBS Parents and PBS Kids. Angela Santomero, creator and executive producer and head writer of PBS series Super Why!, will provide daily reading activity assignments, answer parent questions and offer advice throughout the online event. Guest coaches such as cast members, characters, authors and series creators from PBS Kids will also provide activities and ideas each week.

And, to support reading on a local level, iVillage and PBS Kids will sponsor reading parties hosted by iVillage members and bloggers. Participants will also have a daily chance to win a US$100 gift card for building home libraries.