The Importance of Summer Reading

The summer is fast approaching and with it comes the Library’s Summer Reading Program.  Each year our youth librarians put together a Summer Reading Program packed with programs and prizes for children and teens.  One of our goals is to make the library a fun summer destination, but our motives go beyond that.  Learning should not stop once school ends in June.  In fact, kids who do not read during the summer will start school behind students who do.  This summer learning loss often has a cumulative effect as well, meaning kids who start the school year behind, rarely catch up to their class mates, but instead, fall further behind.

The Summer Reading Program encourages both enthusiastic and reluctant readers by rewarding them for reading throughout the summer and by drawing them into the library with programs, including book-themed programs as well as magic shows, musical performances, crafts and more.  Participants can read whatever is interesting to them – novels, nonfiction, comic books, even cookbooks.  Programs are at varying times during the day, making it easy to fit a trip to the library into your busy summer schedules and all of our programs are free.

The theme for this year’s Summer Reading Program is “Dream Big, Read!” and it runs from June 18th through August 3rd.  Head over to your local branch any time after June 18th to register for the program and begin collecting your prizes the following week.  Programs calendars can be found at each branch and on our website.  The theme for teens (ages 12 and up) is “Own the Night”.  Registration for the teen program will be online and teens can continue to log books online until August 17th.

Huntington, Barbara. Why Public Library Summer Reading Programs are Important.

Retrieved from:  http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/pdf/slp-points.pdf

- Christine C.