It’s summer, and here at the Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL), that means it’s time for the annual TD Summer Reading Club! The TD Summer Reading Club aims to keep children and youth reading all summer long by making reading fun! During weekly visits to their local libraries, kids ages 3-14 will receive stickers, prizes, and other take home activities as a reward for reading through July and August. July 8th is the official start date, but registration is now open at all TBPL branches.
“When children don’t read over the summer, they often start school a step backwards in the fall,” says Angela Meady, Head of Children’s and Youth Services at TBPL. “That’s why it’s so important to keep them reading over the summer months.”
And that’s the reason the TD Summer Reading Club was developed jointly by the Toronto Public Library, TD Bank Group, and Library and Archives Canada. The program was originally started in Toronto in 1994, expanding to all of Ontario in 2001 and finally across Canada in 2004. Last year, almost 290,000 children and youth from across the country participated and read over two million books!
This year, registration for the TD Summer Reading Club opened on June 24th here at TBPL. Children ages 3-14 are welcome to register into one of two groups (ages 3-6 or 7+). There are 440 spots available between all four of our branches. When registering, make sure to choose the branch that’s most convenient for you to visit because you’ll be checking in at the same branch for the entirety of the TD Summer Reading Club. On July 8th, your kids can pick up their notebook, which is where they can track the books they’ve read. Kids are asked to read either three books or three chapters of a book each week. Then every week, they get to visit the library, where library staff will ask them what they liked and disliked about the books they read. After that, kids are given a sticker and a prize or a take home activity. Prizes over the summer include a free ticket to a regular season Border Cat’s game, a free bowling pass for Mario’s Bowl, and a free kid’s meal at Boston Pizza. And don’t worry, if you’re away on vacation - you can catch up on a later week.
“We love hearing about what the kids think when they review their books” says Meady, who was first involved with the Summer Reading Club at TBPL when the library first ran its own program; this was prior to joining the national program in the 1990’s. “They’re quite the astute reviewers.”
At the end of the summer, there’s always a wrap up party. TBPL’s parties often include games, snacks, crafts and more; sometimes library staff have even put on a puppet show! Kids will receive an invitation two weeks before the party; this year it is on Wednesday, August 19th.
The theme for the 2015 TD Summer Reading Club is Play; the idea is to encourage kids to see reading as a form of play. It’s a looser theme than previous years, which have included 2013’s Go! (encouraging kids to explore the world around them), and last year’s Eureka! We are dreamers of dreams, makers of worlds, (encouraging kids to create). This year, the stickers and other illustrations are by Josée Bisaillon, an artist from Montreal who has illustrated books for children, and magazines and newspapers for adults. Josée has a very whimsical art style, which perfectly conveys the theme for this year’s reading club.
For more information and reading lists, check out the tbpl kids space at kids.tbpl.ca or head to the TD Summer Reading Club website at tdsummerreadingclub.ca.
Shauna Kosoris
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