Community Corner

Doylestown Library Kicks Off Summer Reading Program

Kids keep a summer reading log and can win weekly prizes, with a shot at the grand prizes of a Kindle Fire or a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge.

When Linden Elementary students left school last week, they went home with a special message from librarian Mike Wolf.

Reading over the summer would help them retain the skills they had spent all year learning - and the Doylestown library's summer reading program was a great way to make that reading fun.

On Saturday, the Doylestown library will host a special event to kick off that annual program. The theme for 2012 is "Dream Big - READ!"

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"It’s to keep kids reading over the summer, but to do it in a fun way," said Katie Ringenbach, Youth Services Librarian at the Doylestown branch.

All seven branches of the Bucks County Free Library system will be running a summer reading program, said Bonnie White, branch manager at the Doylestown library.

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Preschoolers, grade school students and teenagers may pick up reading logs beginning Saturday, June 16. Kids track the number of minutes they read and visit the library each week to receive a prize.

At the end of the summer, each of the Bucks County Free Libraries will draw a winner for a Kindle Fire, White said. A county-wide drawing will be held for a family vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos.

The Doylestown program has been running for as many years as employees there can remember, said White, who has worked for the Bucks County library system for 37 years. The reading challenge still is very popular today, even in the face of videogames and sports programs.

"The kids really look forward to it," White said. "All week, they’ve been coming in and asking for their logs and we had to tell them to come back on Saturday."

The Doylestown branch will kick off the program Saturday morning with a special . It starts at 10:30 a.m.

In keeping with the dream theme, members of the Doylestown Kiwanis club volunteered last week to hang silver stars on black streamers above the library stacks in the kids' section.

When kids and parents come in search of suggestions for titles to read, library staff are ready. Area schools put out suggested summer reading lists, and to encourage children to read this summer.

In choosing titles this summer, Ringenbach said she encourages kids to try something new and exciting.

"I always tell them summer is your opportunity to pick something you’re interested in, not something your teacher wants you to read," she said.

For more information on Bucks County Free Library programs, visit www.buckslib.org.

See below for James Patterson's handpicked book suggestions:


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