Summer Reading FAQ

A: Our summer reading program is designed to encourage kids, teens, and adults to read what they enjoy, all summer long! We provide special folders to all registrants that include reading logs and incentives to encourage you to track your reading over the summer. There are also fun rewards for completing the summer reading program!

A: While the library is full of titles for everyone to discover, we provide the framework of the program, and all the participants are welcome to read whatever they want, whether it comes from our collection or not! Anything participants read counts towards our program: books, audiobooks, graphic novels, magazines, etc!

The schools provide grade specific lists of suggested series, authors and titles, which the library keeps track of (you can find downloadable school lists in the summer reading portal) and we work to ensure we have the books suggested by the schools, but our summer reading program is meant to encourage reading for fun!

A: Reading during the summer helps prevent the “summer slide” while retaining knowledge and skills acquired over the previous year, such as vocabulary, spelling, and math! Reading is a strong tool for growing in comprehension skills and general knowledge of the world! For families with babies, toddlers, and pre-readers, participating in summer reading through the library is a fun way to foster a love of reading, to bond over stories and learn together, and to build a strong foundation before formal schooling!

A: Anyone can sign up for our summer reading program. Whether you ar it's free and open to everyone! We have one universal form for everyone (kids, teens, and adults) to sign up, and we will provide you with the correct folder based on your age group!

A: This year's Summer Reading theme is Read, Renew, Repeat, with a focus on conservation! All of our summer reading folders include instructions, a reading log, a calendar of events, and lots of fun surprises to keep your child entertained all summer long! 

Kids (ages 0 - entering grade 6) will find a timed reading log in their bags! We have chosen this format because reading for time (rather than a specific number of books) is a much more equitable way to help readers build confidence in their reading skills over the summer! Kids read at different paces, with differing levels of comfort and confidence, and we want to ensure that it is always an enjoyable experience! By reading for time, peers in the same grade who read at different paces can both be successful and proud of their reading accomplishments over the summer!

Each time your child reads independently (or you read together as a family) for 20 minutes, they can check off a circle on their reading log! A completed reading log represents 25 HOURS of reading! We will be including 1 reading log in the bags this year, but kids are always encouraged to read beyond the first log!

Teens (entering grades 7-12) will find a “bingo sheet” reading log, with fun prompts of different genres, tropes, and elements to facilitate exploration! Teens “complete” summer reading by getting bingo in any direction, which translates to reading 5 books over the summer! For each row of bingo completed your teen will receive a raffle ticket entry into our End-of-Summer Prize Giveaway! If your teen completes the entire bingo sheet then they will be entered into the drawing for the Grand Prize! In the past, grand prizes have been zip-lining tickets, Fujifilm Instax camera, and fun gift baskets!

Adults (everyone else)

A: Please fill out the short reporting form on the website portal! We need to know how many people participated in and completed summer reading, both so we can reward our readers (and so we can report our numbers to the state!) 

A: YES! This is highly encouraged! We will be including 1 reading log in the bags this year, but kids are always encouraged to read more! Extra reading logs can be downloaded from our Summer Reading Portal!

A: NO LIMIT! Your child can keep reading and logging their reading time all summer! We have downloadable logs for you to print out available on our portal! Feel free to print what you need!