Kids Win Big the Summer with Reading

As any wizened statesman or budding scholar will tell you,  just because school is out for the summer doesn't mean your learning must end.  In fact, in these days of steep academic budget cuts and ballooning tuitions, competition for scholarships has grown considerably.  One great resource your child has in out-working, out-thinking, and out-reading the competition is the Gulf Beaches' Public Library.

Kicking off on June 16th, the library's 2011 Summer Reading Program looks to jump start summer vacation with lots of fun, laughs, and, yes, learning.  According to Crytal Mui of the library, the summer program has become quite popular with the kids over the years. 

Drawing in around 40-50 kids every Tuesday afternoon (2PM), each week has its own event.  Activities ranging from Cesar Domico's magic on June 14, Holli Ruben's puppeteering on July 5, to the library's own Crystal Mui's teachings about China on July 26.

Mui notes that for those kids too old, to be enticed by June 12th's face painting, the Summer Reading Program also has a prize system.  Broken into three age categories (2-12, 5-12+, and 13 & younger), each category hosts a prize that's earned by using special bookmarks during trips to the library.

+ 2-12: For the younger readers there's a special Disney bookmark that'll earn them a free ticket to Disney on Ice after they visit the library five times.  

+ 5-12: Disney characters too cutesy, or little, for your reader?  The library also has a special Tampa Bay Rays themed Read Your Way to the Ballpark game.  The path to each base has a requirement (Read 3 hours to get to first), for the children to achieve.  Each base carrying a corresponding prize - temporary tattoos, posters, bracelets, all leading up to a free ticket to a Rays game!

+ 13 & up: The library is raffling off gift cards to Target, Barnes & Noble, Panera, Starbucks, and Chick-fil-A for its teenage patrons.  These teens will receive a raffle slip for every book they finish, thus enticing them to read more. 

Recognizing that a contest without a grand prize is destined to be one, lonely contest,  the Gulf Beaches Public Library has teamed up with to give your child's summer reading an altruistic dimension. Keeping a log of their hours spent with a book in a special "passport," which, at summer's end, the library will count.  If the goal of a 1000 hours is reached, the library will adopt a Great Horned Owl!

The Gulf Beaches Public Library can be found here.