Library’s Summer Reading Challenge offers some kid-centric events
Officials at the Columbus Metropolitan Library want to make sure kids’ heads are buried in books this summer — and will use a variety of fun and festive means to do so.
That includes setting up a petting zoo, booking live entertainment and presenting one impressive Lego design.
Those will be among the activities and events featured in the kickoff event for the CML’S annual Summer Reading Challenge. The festivities, which promote the library system’s annual program to help promote reading among young people, will get underway at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Main Library, 96 S. Grant Ave.
“Summer Reading Challenge is our signature event,” said Ben Zenitsky, a spokesman for the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
At the kickoff for the challenge, author and musician Eric Litwin (“Pete the Cat”) will give a concert at 11:15 a.m. in the second-floor reading room. At noon on the front lawn, a petting zoo will feature a menagerie including chickens, ducks, goats and rabbits.
“We’ll have an incredible Lego display in our atrium that is just jaw-dropping,” Zenitsky said.
The challenge itself is broken up into four age groups — pre-readers (ages 0 to 4), kids (ages 5 to 11), teens (ages 12 to 17) and adults (ages 18 and older) — who commit to read for 15 minutes per day for 30 days between June 1 and July 31. Those with a library card can sign up and proceed to make a record of their reading minutes online at www. columbuslibrary.org/summerreading.
Readers receive age-appropriate prizes when they sign up and at other milestones during the challenge, such as a coupon sheet when they have completed 15 days of reading. Those who make it to 30 days will receive another prize and be entered in a raffle for additional prizes.
Of course, the point of the challenge is that reading is a reward in itself.
“Studies have shown for years that kids who do not read over the summer are susceptible to what is referred to as ‘summer slide,’” Zenitsky said. “They can actually lose critical reading skills that they gain during the school year and show up in the fall at a disadvantage.”
And, if the young person in your life is having trouble deciding what to read this summer, tap the shoulder of a CML librarian, at the kickoff event or any other time.
“We have wonderful, incredible staff members who are ready, waiting and eager to connect each and every member of your family with the perfect book,” Zenitsky said.
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