Summer Reading Ahoy!

Okay, I know I'm way overdue for this post but, well, we're in the middle of Summer Reading Club. We are, like many of y'all, Making a Splash at our library this summer - our program's all water themed.


Check out our underwater decorations over at the ALSC Blog!

For our Summer Reading Club, kids have to read either 20 books or 1000 pages to complete the program and get their prizes. Each child can choose which way she wants to count and she can read any books she wants as long as they're at her reading level. (This is honor system.) When kids complete the club, they get:

• a packet of coupons donated by local businesses
• a prize from the treasure chest (we ordered a variety of rubber duckies from Oriental Trading and the kids are really liking them [even most of the older kids - score!])
• and entry slips for our weekly prize drawings and our grand prize drawings

Each week, we draw names for the weekly prize and the winners get to pick out a book to keep from a selection of books we have. At the end of the summer, we'll draw winners for our grand prizes. We have about 12 grand prizes including gift cards to the local movie theatre and bookstore, a Slip 'n Slide, pool toys, a complete set of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (bought in December from the Scholastic warehouse sale), a set of plush sea creatures, Star Wars legos, bath toys, and more...

If kids finish the SRC, they can keep reading and for every 20 books or 1000 pages they read, they get more coupons (we have three "levels" of coupon packets and after they get all those, they can choose one extra coupon from the ones we have that are unlimited) and more chances to win the drawings. I like this because it keeps them reading all summer.

Some of our programs tie into the Make a Splash theme and some don't. Big (read: paid) programs include a clown juggling show, puppet shows, the Louisville Zoo bringing animals, and a mad scientist show. For the older kids we're also doing a Titanic program (actually, we already did this - program post is coming!), a fantasy book club, a Percy Jackson party, and showing The Lightning Thief movie. For the younger kids, we're doing several storytime-and-craft programs on watery themes (Who Lives in the Sea?, Gone Fishin', Snowing in July).

We run our Summer Reading Club for 10 weeks, from May 24-July 31. This year because we had so many snow days, our SRC started about a week and a half before school ended. I think this actually worked out fine because it allowed us a week of sign-ups trickling in before the big rush when school let out. Our kids will go back to school mid-August, so that gives them some time to do other things before school starts up again. Of course, if kids bring logs in after the deadline, we'll still give them coupons and prizes as long as we have supplies left.

And there, in a nutshell, we have the Summer Reading Club. Anyone else doing Make a Splash? Anyone doing any other themes? What cool stuff are you doing (that I can borrow for next year)?