Library's Summer Program Helps Kids Dive Into Reading

About a dozen children and their parents puttered around the entrance of Monday to await the start of this year’s Summer Reading Program Kickoff event. 

The doors opened around 1 p.m. and families were greeted with a newly-decorated lobby. Filled with posters and decorations, the library possessed a multicultural theme along with the summer’s beloved reading feline, "Sneaks the Cat," the library mascot who came out to cheer for the Anne Arundel Public Library's summer reading club, "One World, Many Stories."

A main function of the initiative is to create a connection between students and books. One that is not regulated by a teacher, but moreso by their imagination and self-interest, said Joan Bradford, a program and outreach coordinator for Anne Arundel County Public Libraries.

“We don’t want reading to be a requirement,” said Cathy Hollerbach, the branch manager of Severn’s Provinces Library. “It’s not what the teacher assigns. The kids choose.”

About 15,000 students from Anne Arundel County ranging from pre-K to 12th grade are expected to participate in the program. At the library, they're given recommended reading and tools to track their summer reading progress.

For Kendal Joyce, a 12-year-old from Fort Meade, the program increased her passion for reading. So much so, she now volunteers at the library throughout the summer to help other children.

“I get to interact with the kids and it helps with college applications,” Joyce said.

The local reader said she has been involved in the Summer Reading Program for the last five years.

Most children experience a decrease in reading during the summer, Bradford said, which can hurt their performance when school starts back up in August.

“There’s a summer slippage,” Bradford said.

A three-year national study by Dominican University was released in 2010 and showed that students who participated in public library summer reading programs scored higher on reading tests than those who didn’t at the beginning of the next school year.

“This study definitely shows that summer reading programs play a significant role in preventing summer reading loss and that public libraries provide an important bridge between academic years,” said Dr. Susan Roman, dean of Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Systems and the study’s project administrator.

At Provinces, children visited multicultural stations, oblivious to the library’s underlying intention to increase academic achievement. The childen especially enjoyed the periodic visits from Sneaks the cat.

Libraries throughout Anne Arundel County are taking part in the program and students can visit any location to complete their weekly check-up sheets to track their progress.

Some of the program’s recommended books include classics like The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, Matilda by Roald Dahl and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

More information on the Summer Reading Program can be found on the county library website.