Local Libraries 'Dig' Summer Reading

By: Megan Malloy

Hightstown, East Windsor, and Cranbury libraries are packing the summer full of literary adventures and showing kids just how fun reading can be.

Summer is the time for surf and sun, but also for tackling those books that have been languishing on your nightstand all year. For kids in particular, making sure they turn the next page is essential in preventing the “summer slump.”

“The idea is that you want to keep kids reading through the summer because, statistically, they can lose quite a chunk of what they learned the year before if they don’t keep their minds engaged,” Jan Murphy, the children’s librarian at the Cranbury Public Library, said.

Murphy’s goal is to encourage kids to read what they want to, as opposed to the school year's sometimes “pedantic” approach of assigned reading lists and structured book reports. 

“If you keep them reading, you will indirectly be able to get the idea across that reading is fun,” Liz Hughes, the children’s librarian at the Hightstown Public Library, said. “It doesn’t have to be something that you have to do in school because your teacher says it or your mom says it.”

Hughes has pioneered a new program this summer called Book Buddies, which pairs local teen volunteers with early elementary school kids to get them reading. Teens benefit from giving back to their community, and kids are able to practice reading for pleasure, not because it’s required.

The Hightstown Library is part of the Mercer County consortium, and kids are able to participate in the summer reading program at any of the nine branches. Kids can log the books they read and be entered to win a number of prizes, such as gift certificates to local businesses or new books, depending on how many books the children complete.

This year’s theme is “Dig Into Reading,” and the libraries have taken the theme and ran with it. Hightstown and East Windsor are featuring “Fun with Science” events to meet the growing demand for math and science programming, and the Hightstown High School robotics team will be visiting the branch to give a demonstration. 

Cranbury is hoping to build off of the momentum generated by last year’s “One Book, One Cranbury” program  by stretching the theme a little wider into “Digging into Cranbury Talent,” Murphy said, which focuses specifically on Cranbury. 

The Cranbury library is hosting various members of the community. Brown Dog Produce will stop by the Cranbury library to teach kids how to grow their own tomatoes. If that does not satisfy your green thumb, Cranbury resident Bobbi Gumbinger will be teaching kids how to raise chickens in their own backyard—which, according to Murphy, is legal in Cranbury Township.

Among the most popular books flying off the children’s shelves this season are the perennial staples Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House series, along with newer favorites like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and the author Rick Riordian.

Ultimately, the summer is for reading what you love, and “Dig Into Reading” seeks to cultivate that love, and teaches kids that “you can pick a book and go anywhere you want to,” Hughes said.