Jessica Smith: The magic of summer reading

Summer to me is grass tickling my bare feet, sunshine warming my face, and a book in my hands — usually with a pile of backup books waiting for me inside.

Sometimes you’d find me curled up against a tree, sprawled across the top of the monkey bars on my swing set, or maybe on our back deck with a glass of sweet tea, but always immersed in a fictional world much more interesting than my own. A world where I could be an elf, a witch or even a mermaid.

I would read until the sun went down, or I got a little too much sun (ouch), or my mom decided I needed to help with dinner. And often when she wasn’t working, she’d join in on the reading adventures with me, reading some Norah Roberts or a Princess Diana biography.

It was a magical time, but what I didn’t know was it could have been even more magical! Unfortunately, when I was growing up, we didn’t have a local library close by, so I had never heard of a summer reading program until I began library school. And what a surprise it was.

They were telling me that there were prizes for reading in the summer, and I’d been missing out my whole life. How many candy bars, coupons, rubber duckies, gift baskets, prizes galore had I missed out on? Thank goodness I soon learned that this summer reading thing wasn’t only for kids, but it was for teens and adults too.

So now my goal is to make sure that all of you don’t go without learning about your local library’s summer reading program! And boy, am I excited to share with you this year’s program at Greenwood Public Library, Adventures in Reading.

We’re thrilled to announce that we’re using a different and easy-to-use tracking software called Beanstack with a lot of fun perks, including a free app that helps you time your reading minutes, parent accounts that let you log reading for the whole family at once, and even the opportunity to add other readers as friends and share your reading success.

But that’s not all. Once you start logging your reading, you’ll discover that you can earn badges and raffle tickets. Kids will earn for every 5 hours (300 minutes), while teens and adults will earn for every 10 hours (600 minutes).

Each raffle ticket is an entry to win one of our Adventures in Reading gift baskets, all themed to fit different kinds of awe-inspiring adventures: (Baby/Toddler) Swim Zone, (Kids) Around the World, Zoo (Adults) Outdoor, Cooking or Gaming. You’ll also be able to complete missions to earn badges for extra fun, like “Check out a kit from The Studio,” “Download an eBook” or “Read a graphic novel.”

When? Where? Why? How?

You can begin to log your reading on June 1 at Greenwood Public Library, on your computer at home or even on an app on your phone. Why? Well that part’s easy: You were going to read anyway this summer. Why not get rewarded for it? If you tell me that you weren’t going to read this summer, well first I would shake my head at you disapprovingly, but then I would tell you about the importance of reading — keeping your mind stimulated, reducing stress, learning about new places and cultures and vocabulary, improving your memory and analytical thinking skills, and of course for entertainment.

You can literally read about anything you want. You can read the newspaper, a magazine or a comic book. We just want to build an engaged community of enthusiastic readers.

And of course the how: Check out the Library Guides on our YouTube channel for a step-by-step instructional video on how to create a Beanstack account and get started. And keep your eye out for more summer adventures at the library, where you can watch Cartoons in the Park, become a Citizen Scientist, get creative and make in The Studio, or conquer worlds in a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

For more information on our summer reading program, library events and other details, make sure to visit our website at www.greenwoodlibrary.us.

Jessica Smith is the teen librarian at the Greenwood Public Library. Staff members share in writing this bi-monthly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected]