Thousands of Kids Read Their Way Through Summer

More than 3,000 kids participated in the Summer Reading Club through the —the third highest number in the Baltimore County Public Library system.

At the same time, the library system broke its own record for participants: 48,413 students—an increase of more than 2,400 over last year, according to a news release.

“The branches saw extremely heavy participation in summer reading this year," said Marisa Conner, Youth Services coordinator for the system. "It's a great sign that more Baltimore County children are reading over the summer.”

At the Pikesville Branch Library, there were 3,382 participants. Randallstown saw 2,863 and there were 1,756 in Woodlawn, it states.

Cockeysville saw the highest number, at 5,741.

When BCPL started keeping statistics for the program in 1984, there were only 3,522 participants, the release states.

The nine-week program ran from June to August, and kept readers interested and entertained through books during the summer months.

Themes were:

• Babies: Read to Me Club

• Preschool: "Dream Big: Read!"
• Middle school and older: "Own the Night"
• High School and older: Goodreads Group

Throughout the summer the libraries had games and prizes, crafts and scavenger hunts.

Following are the participation numbers by branch library:

Arbutus: 2,441

Catonsville: 2,483

Cockeysville: 5,741

Essex:  2,781

Hereford:  1,524

Lansdowne:  753

Loch Raven:  311

MLS (bookmobiles):  2,856

North Point:  3,207

Parkville:  2,386

Perry Hall:   4,155

Pikesville:  3,382

Randallstown: 2,863

Reisterstown:  2,691

Rosedale: 2,676

Sollers Point:  471

Towson:  2,808

White Marsh:  3,128

Woodlawn: 1,756

Did you read during the summer? How about your kids? Tell us what you read in the comments section. And, do you recommend it to others?

Towson Patch Editor Nayana Davis contributed to this report.