Every summer, various businesses and organizations work to promote childhood literacy through summer reading programs (check out this link for more information). There are so many great resources! My family loves the ABQ Library summer reading program. This will be our sixth year participating; we have joined every year since we moved to Albuquerque. Adults can participate, too, and it’s always one of the highlights of our summer.
How It Works
The summer reading program has a different theme every year: this summer it’s all about dinosaurs with the tag line “Unearth a Story!” You can sign up at the link here to print your reading chart. You can also pick one up onsite at any library branch starting May 30th.
Ages 0-17 set a weekly reading goal, and once that goal is accomplished, they get to pick out a prize at the library. Prizes vary between books and “mystery prizes” every other week. My four-year-old is always so excited to go pick her prize! She loves looking at all the books to see which one she wants to bring home that week (she loved finding Pete the Cat books in last year’s selection)! The bin of mystery prizes is so fun to look through, too. For adults, you can submit a card for every 10 hours you read to be entered into a drawing for weekly prizes. At the end of the summer, each branch has a grand prize drawing for each age group.
Events and Activities
Throughout the summer, each branch has special themed events you can attend. Activities often have a suggested age range (kids, teens, and adults), but all are a lot of fun! When my daughter was two, we took her to a dog show, and she giggled and giggled the whole way through because she thought the dogs were so cute.
Last year when she was three, the ventriloquist puppet show and magic show were big highlights for her. I’m so excited to see what her favorites are this summer! There are science-based shows, opportunities to make music and dance, movie screenings, and more.
The schedule of events will be posted online so you can easily see what’s going on at each branch every week to help map out your summer schedule.
Branch Visit BINGO
One of my family’s favorite parts of the library summer reading program is Branch Visit Bingo! Did you know there are 19 ABQ Library branches in and around the city? That’s a lot of libraries to visit and check out! At the beginning of the summer reading program, you can pick up a bingo card at any branch. Each time you go to a different branch, you get it marked off (attending special events also counts for some squares).
We always set the goal to get branch visit bingo blackout during the course of the summer! It’s fun to see all the different buildings, play with different toys, and explore new parts of the city as we spend the summer getting to all the branches.
Plus, each time you get a bingo, you get entered to win a grand prize. I was so excited last year when I got the call saying that I had won and we got to enjoy a fun day at Cliff’s as a family!
Why ABQ Library Summer Reading?
We find summer reading gets us to the library more often than we do throughout the school year, which is always a good thing. Participating in the summer reading program is an excellent way to support our libraries. It also helps children avoid the “summer slide” of literacy. When it gets to be 90 degrees outside, it’s nice to be able to pop into a library for an hour to get out of the house and still be in air conditioning!
We love the ABQ library summer reading program! It has been so meaningful to my family over the years and has brought us a lot of joy. It’s fun to look at the schedule for the week and decide what events we want to attend. It really promotes great family time and memory making! It also helps us be more intentional about reading all summer long, individually and as a family.
When I told my daughter I had registered us for the summer reading program, she exclaimed, “YES! I’m so excited!” She then launched into her favorite books she has received as prizes. Sign up today and have lots of fun unearthing new stories and having fun family bonding experiences as you participate in the ABQ Library summer reading program!
