Summer Reading Program

Heat, wind, dust, odor, and allergies – summer must be arriving in our corner of Iowa.  In fact, with two days already over ninety-degrees, it seemed odd to many of the library staff that we weren’t helping children and young adults turn in their summer reading minutes to collect prizes.  However, the rising temperatures have been increasing our anticipation for another season of reading.  This summer’s program with the theme “Be Creative at Your Library” will be unique, eventful, and exciting!

 The changing theme from year to year lends to the program’s uniqueness, but this year is especially different because all participants will be randomly assigned to one of four teams. In the past, we had age groups compete against one another to read the most minutes, but the third through fifth graders consistently shamed all other age groups.  So we broke up that dream team by putting all ages together into the blue, yellow, green, and purple teams. The winning team will receive this year’s reading title with all the bragging rights that go with it. If you win, feel free to let people know you were on the team that read the most– maybe they’ll be impressed or maybe they won’t.  In any case, you can experience the self-satisfaction of winning or at least letting the third through fifth graders carry you.

An important thing to remember is that the reading program is open to all ages.  Our motto is: If you can breathe, you can participate. We would especially like to see more adult participation this summer as it sets a good example for children and it will help contribute to the library goal of reaching 8,000 minutes. If participants achieve 8,000 minutes (everybody’s totals combined), the library, assisted by local businesses, will purchase a Wii for all ages to use. So everyone, but adults especially, need to be reading hard this summer to win the Wii and to help their team win the reading title! In order to keep a close running total we ask that adult participants try to turn in their reading minutes on a bi-weekly basis. It would be nice to see this reading competition come right down to the wire.

In addition to the reading, all ages can be entertained throughout the summer by attending our numerous events. Along with the usual kick-off ice cream social and the rocket launch later in June, we will be hosting a magic show, the Spoon Man, IPTV’s Dan Wardell, the Noise Guy, the whittler Rich Ahrenholtz, and Gary Harbo, who will be offering an instructional class on how to draw. With these activities and programs, the library will surely live up to its summer reading theme.

Be sure to stop in June 8 (opening day) to pick up your reading logs, or if you wait until that evening, you can check out the magic show at 6:30 and consume some ice cream afterwards.  For more information about the summer reading program and exact details, please go here.