Brookfield Library Teams With Town to Boost Summer Reading

BROOKFIELD. CT — The Brookfield Library's summer reading program outperformed all expectations -- with a little help from the town.

The library is touting an increase of one hundred percent in student participation in the 2018 summer program over the previous year's initiative. Librarians believe the jump may be attributed in no small degree to their collaboration with the library media specialists in Brookfield's public school system.

In May and June, librarians from the public library visited most of the grades in the public schools and gave out information about the Summer Reading Program. They also collected incentives from the local businesses and created games and programs designed to inspire reading. Librarians from the schools promoted the programs within each of their schools to keep enthusiasm high.

The result was that over 500 students took part in the 2018 summer program, which has "Libraries Rock!" as its theme.

"This is important because research indicates that there is a significant loss in reading skill for students who do not read during the summer break. When students continue to read during their summer break, they can return to school without a deficit. Students who do not read during their summer break have more catching up to do.” said Library Director Yvonne Cech in a release.

Librarians also collected incentives from the local businesses and created games and programs designed to inspire reading. These included Read for Beads, which provided beads for blocks completed on a game sheet. Younger students collected the beads all summer long to fill in a chain necklace.

“I have loved seeing the children’s necklaces grow longer as the summer progressed. They are so proud of their reading and participation in our special programs this summer, and are eager to show their long necklaces and share their full game sheets with their teachers and librarians when they return to school!” said Mary Proudfoot, who oversees children’s services at The Brookfield Library. “We have given out more than 500 chains and thousands of beads this summer."

Students at Whisconier Middle School and Brookfield High School logged more than 96,000 minutes of reading this summer, using the Wandoo Reader website. The Brookfield Library awarded seven weekly prizes of gift cards ranging in value from $20 - $50 to program participants reading at least 120 minutes over the summer.

In addition to regular programs, The Brookfield Library held 26 special Summer Reading Programs from the end of June through the beginning of August.