Summer Reading: Planting Seeds, Lighting Flames
Call it our metaphorical Super Bowl, Olympics, or more aptly, Triathlon, library workers across the country have been visiting schools and communities to promote their summer reading and learning programs to support their school partners all year - and encourage everyone to continue reading this summer. I often think that young people may not remember us individually but they will remember how library workers made them feel welcomed and at home at the library - and that the library is a place for them, which will help them become lifelong library patrons - and lifelong learners. Summer reading presentations help us plant these seeds for a lifetime.
Since early May, I have visited my local Wilmette junior high, middle school, and elementary schools, along with my wonderful and generous youth services, teen services, and digital and maker services colleagues, and often, with outreach librarians from Glenview Public Library & Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District, who serve our communities together - and demonstrate that summer reading programs are open for all.
We shared interactive, engaging, inspiration, and fun presentations (thank you, Canva!) about the importance of reading in the summer, shared how to participate in our summer reading program, played a game show with Minty and Marshmallow, our library beasties, to learn what we can read (answer: all the things!) and of course, shared fantastic booktalks from ALSC - The Association for Library Service to Children's 2024 Summer Reading lists to inspire everyone to find a book BEFORE school ended. We distributed thousands of reading logs, ensuring immediate access to participate in the program.
In total, we shared our Summer Reading Club with MORE than 3,361 students and educators!
And the result? Kids are constantly coming into the library, sharing that they saw us at their schools, which always makes my day. Kids have specifically come in to get the books and lists we recommended - and to visit Minty and Marshmallow. (How kind of Minty and Marshmallow to bring us to their summer reading presentations...) The connections we've made between public libraries and school communities become stronger, as we all work together to support readers and their families year round.
And our capacity for book joy, self-selection, choice, and lifelong learning expands like a flame... so maybe our whole experience is like the Olympics torch relay... And we all get to be part of readers' journeys to discover forever books and stories. (And at the end, we all needed lots of water, sunscreen, and a long nap!)
Read, Renew, Repeat, indeed.
I'm so grateful to everyone who helped make these visits possible, from school librarians, administrators, educators, support staff, office staff, IT staff to ensure all our ambitious technology ran smoothly, facilities, youth services colleagues who were my buddies, cheerleaders, & desk shift substitutes, administrators, lyft drivers, friends who supported us to do this heart work, and more!
Extra shoutout and appreciation to my colleague, Lisa, who made our epic new Summer Reading club video, which was the grand finale of each of our visits. Check it out!
The only way we can do this work is together.
But you don't have to take my word for it. During our school visits, we asked students why they read in the summer, which centered their reading experiences, goals, and motivations. We collected these responses on our library blog here. Trying to encourage children to read in the summer? Ask them to share their whys!
Check out the video below to play our favorite game show, "What Can I Read?... with Minty and Marshmallow."
Curious what our Summer Reading Club Presentations are like? (Fun Fact: I made many different versions depending on the school/age group I was visiting.) I truly leveled up my presentations, thanks to Canva!
Check them out here:
K-2: https://tinyurl.com/SRC-WPL-K2-Presentation
3: https://tinyurl.com/SRC-WPL-Gr3-Presentation
4-5: https://tinyurl.com/SRC-WPL-Gr4-5-Presentation
6-7: https://tinyurl.com/WPL-SRC-Gr6-7-Presentation
You can access the ALSC Summer Reading Lists here.
Learn more about Wilmette Public Library’s Summer Reading Club here.
How will you celebrate summer reading this year?