School has been underway for a few weeks now, so it may seem strange to still be talking about summer reading. However since we made some changes to our program this year, the Library just finished distributing prizes and calculating all the statistics that go along with the fun.
This year our summer reading program ran from May 26-August 31. We decided to move away from levels based on a certain amount of time read and instead decided to award prizes each month just for reading every day. The goal was to read 20 minutes per day and all age groups (Children, Teens, and Adults) had that same goal. This amount of time was chosen to correspond with the message promoted by WeRead, our community’s literacy initiative.
Teens who read daily were rewarded with a free book at the end of each month, meaning those who participated all summer could receive 3 books by the end of August! We also gave away bonus prizes for reading more than the minimum. Those prizes included gift cards to McDonalds and extra entries in the grand prize drawing.
This year the Library decided to award four grand prizes, rather than just one.
The teen (7th-12th grade) winners of $50 gift cards to Eastridge Mall are:
Bailey T. (12th grade); Taliah B. (9th grade); Casey H. (9th grade); and Cameron A. (8th grade)!
Congratulations to our winners and also to everyone who participated in this year’s program. It may sound cliché, but reading really is its own reward.
For those who are interested, here are a few other numbers from our 2015 Teen Summer Reading Program.
- 504 books awarded to teens as prizes.
- 923 entries in the teen grand prize drawing.
- 235 teens received prizes and 101 teens received prizes for all three months of reading (74 of those also received bonus prizes for each month).
The Library does more during Summer Reading than just facilitate the reading program. We also provide free programs each week for all ages. Our teen program is for 7th – 12th graders who are looking for a fun or creative way to spend their time and meet new friends. This summer the Teen Zone hosted 29 programs that were attended by 495 teens! Those programs included book clubs, weekly craft/maker programs, movies, and two fandom events (Nerdfighter Night and Harry Potter’s Birthday Celebration).
Pictures taken at our teen events can be viewed on the Teen Zone’s facebook page as well as on flickr.
We have lots of fun coming this school year for teens and are already in the process of brainstorming what will happen next summer. Until then… keep reading!