One World - Many Books

This year's Summer Reading Program has an International theme, "One World - Many Books". As a group we will be "traveling" to different parts of the world every week. We have programs planned to feature Africa, Japan, China, Latin America, Europe, and Australia. We have tried to pick crafts that not only represent these different cultures, but are also easy and fun to do.

As usual, we offer small incentive prizes to our readers. For every 12 points that a reader completes (chapter and non-fiction books are worth 3 points, Picture books and I-Can-Read books are worth 1 point each), the reader will receive a prize. Here are the prizes for this year:

1st 12 points: temporary tattoo and fortune fish
2nd 12 points: sticky lizard
3rd 12 points: finger puppets
4th 12 points: spin-top markers

Every 12 points after that, the reader gets a pick from the grab bag.

This year we are offering something a little different after you complete your first 4 prizes.

You can choose to take one grab bag prize OR you can put a pebble into the Heifer International jar for each book you have read. The Friends of the Library will pay 5 cents for each pebble in the jar, and hopefully our Summer Readers will be able to help someone in another country with the gift of a farm animal.

I think that its true that it is in a child's nature to want to be helpful. This could be a great lesson in empathy and giving to others for your child. Heifer International has a website that can answer any questions you may have about the program. I include a link below to their website, and specifically their Cornerstone principles.

http://www.heifer.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=edJRKQNiFiG&b=6061893&ct=8404803

One other new idea we are trying this year was brought to us by a patron whose children are active in our Summer Reading Program. Last year, Meijer Stores generously donated a pair of bikes to each of our libraries. We allowed each child who completed the first 4 prizes to have one ticket in our bike drawing. Our patron told us that she would be glad to coordinate donation of prizes for a final drawing for all of our participants. For this drawing, each time a child completes 12 points, they will receive a drawing ticket for the final prize drawing. We are grateful for her help! We want to do anything we can do to motivate a child to read during the summer!

So, that's where we are with Summer Reading Program right now...we are very busy getting ready for a great summer! Questions? Give us a call, or ask on Facebook. THANKS!