As Lavender stated, in addition to the free book and Camden Park tickets, children had the chance to read additional books to compete for more big prizes. We are trying to keep kids in the mindset of reading over the summer so that they don’t lose what they learned in school the previous year.”Īnd when it comes to combatting that learning loss, which educators often refer to as the “summer slide,” a little incentive never hurts. They’re a little competitive too, so they want to keep reading all those books to be able to put in more tickets because they want the grand prize. “We want to offer a program that will get them excited about reading so that they have a reason to want to read. “What we ultimately want is to keep kids from backsliding over the summer,” Lavender explained. With the goal in mind to fill the educational gaps left from school break, PPL’s summer reading program offered themed programming for children, teens, and adults with one common goal in mind: to keep its participants reading and learning. A little break, and then we are right back into it!” “We will start again around October to get started again on next year. “We actually work on summer reading about ten months out of the year,” Lavender said. According to Katie Williams (PPL’s Marketing Manager) and Lisa Lavender (PPL’s Youth Services Supervisor), preparation and planning for the annual summer reading program is nearly a year-round affair. While the summer reading program has finished for now, the staff at the PPL won’t be slowing down any time soon. Thanks to a generous donation from Camden Park, each child who completed the reading log also went home with a free ticket to the amusement park. Each participant got to choose a book to take home to keep forever. PORTSMOUTH-The Portsmouth Public Library (PPL) recently celebrated the finale of its summer reading program, and over three-hundred participants were in attendance to bring the summer of continuous programming to a close.įor children aged 12 and under who read and log at least twenty books during the program, the finale is a time to celebrate their literary achievements with the best prize of all: more books. Summer reader Finn (pictured right) celebrates with BARKer’s Farm’s porcupine, named BARB-ie.