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The Crook County Library offers a summer reading program every year, and children are treated to multiple projects, including art projects such as this one. Last year’s theme was “One World, Many Stories.” The upcoming theme for this summer is “Night.”
Summer at the library will once again be a magical and fun place for children of all ages, complete with jugglers, old time music, comedy and puppetry.
Crook County Library has a yearly tradition of offering a summer reading program, and each year the theme changes. The library recently found out they are the recipient of the Ready to Read grant for $7,419, which is administered by the State Library. It is geared towards children, tweens and teens. The purpose of the program is to establish, develop, and improve public library literacy services for children from birth to five years of age, and provides the statewide summer reading program for children from birth to 14 years of age.
According to Julie Handyside, the youth services librarian for the Crook County Library, they found out just before Christmas that they had received the grant.
She said that the goal of the summer reading program is to get families and kids into the library and get kids reading. Handyside noted that she sees many of the same families and kids each summer.
“It’s the highlight of the summer for many of these kids,” said Handyside. “Last summer, we also saw a lot of new faces and new families. That is exciting.”
The six-week program will include an overall theme of “night.” The young readers will be treated to multiple performers and prize books. Handyside said every child can participate in filling out a reading log . They can read the book themselves, have someone read to them, or they can listen to an audio book. The logs are turned in and put in a drawing for a free book.
“The idea is to get them reading and to get them to choose what they want to read,” commented Handyside.
The library has also been fortunate enough to elicit the artwork of Brian Lies for the summer program. The artist has illustrated some popular picture books, including “Bats at the Ballgame.”
“We are pretty lucky to have him do the artwork.”
The Ready to Read grant was established by the State Legislature in 1993 to assist local libraries in helping achieve the Oregon Benchmarks for childhood learning and development. The annual grant, funded by the general fund of the State of Oregon, is administered by the State Library.
“The research is clear that children become good readers by being turned on to the enjoyment of books, a process that begins at birth,” said State Librarian Jim Scheppke. “With our free books and preschool story time programs, public libraries in nearly every Oregon community have made this their priority – to play a big part in having every Oregon child become a proficient reader.”
