Would you like prose with that?

During the first two weeks in November kids will find books in their McDonald’s Happy Meals rather than the usual little toy.

In partnership with Reading Is Fundamental, McDonald’s will give away about 20 million copies of stories with anti-obesity themes.

There will be four different books, reports the LA Times’ Carolyn Kellogg —

“The Goat Who Ate Everything,” — Tells a story of a goat who has a big appetite and struggles to eat right. But when he does, he feels great and becomes the playful ‘kid’ everyone loves.

“Deana’s Big Dreams” — Shares how Deana, the world’s smallest dinosaur, grew tall by eating right.

“Ant, Can’t” — Features Ant, a bite-sized bodybuilder who’s big on encouraging physical fitness through exercise and eating right.

“Doddi the Dodo Goes to Orlando” — Follows happy-go-lucky bird Doddi who travels the world. She eats right because this dodo is always on the go-go.

Each will be available in a downloadable Spanish version too.

Many enthusiastic articles have been written about the campaign. The only negative post I’ve seen came from a blogger who claimed —

Some will argue that Mickey D’s distributing an anti-obesity message via books makes about as much sense as Joe Camel telling you not to smoke.

Don’t be surprised if that writer finds a lump of coal in his next Happy Meal.

FYI, here’s an ad for the 2012 UK version of the McDonald’s book giveaway:

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]