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Summer reading, reading summer
By howard | July 8, 2009
Nicholas D. Kristof used a line in his column last Sunday that I have been quoting (or plagiarizing, depending on the circumstance) ever since I read it, to put across the importance of what libraries do for kids that school can’t. He wrote, “So how will your kids spend this summer? Building sand castles at the beach? Swimming at summer camp? Shedding I.Q. points?” He then went on to recommend his favorite kid’s books as a bulwark against this summer’s instance of the declining intelligence phenomenon. All that was missing from his column was the library.
I wish he would have recognized that it usually isn’t enough for an adult to recommend something to read. Kids frequently need more incentive than that, and the kids who would most benefit from some summer reading might often turn out to be the kids who need the most incentives. That’s what the library does. By putting summer reading into a context it makes reading more than a chore the grownups want to do. By making that a library context, kids can find the incentives they need. Summer Reading Programs make available everything from the all-important social milieu – complete with the potential for peer pressure to read – to competition for prizes, goals to reach, entertainment rewards and even the opportunity to use reading as an excuse to simply escape for a little bit. In that, the summer Reading Program is an enticing context. But there’s more, the Summer Reading Program is in the Library context, the Library is in the community context. How can you lose?
In RI libraries, summer reading is coordinated statewide. This Summer at OLIS we are lucky enough to have been able to engage Cheryl Space as our new Library Program Specialist for Youth Services just in time to coordinate and enhance the wonderful work the state’s state’s youth services librarians do. The statewide program coordinates with the national Collaborative Summer Library Program making the context even bigger.
Isn’t that what libraries are all about. Walk into one and you’re inside them all, ’cause they all work together. But you don’t need to walk, you can enter online. More and more you can enter via Facebook, Twitter. . . . Then, once you are in the library, you can be there in your community or you can be there alone, or. . .you can indeed get there from here. Over 15,000 kids did last summer through a Summer Reading Program at their public libraries, Bradley Hospital or Meeting Street School.
Meanwhile, the more I misuse Nicholas D. Kristof’s image of IQ points littering the streets of our communities waiting for the kids on summer vacation to go to the library and seal up some learning for next September, the more I am glad he brought the subject up at all; the more I am glad we are working on it. Get your kids to your library this summer. Get yourself there, too.
Topics: General | 1 Comment »
July 9th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Just a few thoughts on this most important topic!
“…it usually isn’t enough for an adult to recommend something to read.”
No, it’s not…… they also have to read favorite stories aloud to their babies, preschool and elementary school-age children! A child who loves to read most likely had a parent or other caring adult in his/her life who read books aloud, talked about them, and made reading together a special, comfortable, joyful time.
“Kids frequently need more incentive than that….”
As far as incentives, the most important in my mind is a children’s librarian who can recommend a “just right” book about a topic that fascinates a child. A friendly face is a powerful motivator for children to return to the library over and over again. Part of the reason I spent so many afternoons in my hometown library (other than air conditioning in the summer and the abundance of magazines) was the friendly librarian who always seemed so happy to see me and my friends – and who let us handle the brand new books before they even hit the shelves.
Thank you, Howard, for this post.
Cheryl