Create Your Own Summer Reading Challenge

When I was a child…..

Summer meant reading. It meant a lot of other things—riding my bike, playing in the sprinklers, consuming vast numbers of popsicles. But more than anything, it meant reading. It meant lazing about in the sun with a book, totally absorbed in the world of the author’s imagination. One summer I read all the way through the Nancy Drew mysteries series. Another summer I was obsessed with magic. Some books, like The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, I reread every summer well into my teens.

I looked forward with eagerness to the Summer Reading Challenge at the library. I loved everything about it: the enthusiasm of the librarians, the themes, the wall where the books we had read would be recorded, reaching milestones and winning prizes. This was a contest I could get excited about!

I loved the library contests, but one summer when my family rented a cottage on the lake for a month, my sister and I made up our own Summer Reading Challenge. That was double the fun! Reading AND putting our own unique spin on the challenge.

Step 1: Decide on a Theme

Previous summer challenges have included “The Space Chase” when each book a child read would move a family’s spaceship closer to their planet. You might choose a theme like Amazing Adventures or Magic and Mayhem or The People Not in the History Books or The Colors of the Rainbow.

Step 2: Decide on a Slogan

Let’s say you choose a theme like I Hear America Singing, you might come up with a slogan like, “Building a country, one brick at a time.” (If you don’t know Walt Whitman’s poem, “I Hear America Singing,” check it out HERE.)

Step 3: Decide on a Visual

You need some way of showing readers’ progress. For example, if your theme is “Read Across America,” you might have a map to the United States and for each page read, mark their journey on the map. Start on one coast and head to the other coast.

Step 4: Decide on Goals Along the Way

You need some way of showing readers’ progress. For example, if your theme is “Candy Land,” you might give out a prize or special recognition when a reader gets to the Gingerbread House and another prize when they go through Lollypop Woods.

Step 5: Decide on Prizes

Everyone loves prizes! Yes, I totally believe in just reading for the love of reading but, hey, this is a challenge. Let’s make it fun! And who doesn’t love a little recognition along the way? Prizes don’t have to be expensive. You can make certificates or ribbons at home. You can give pieces to build something bigger. For example, let’s say that your theme is Making Your Garden Grow. For each milestone, you might give your readers another piece of a plant: Give them a stem for their first milestone, a leaf or two for their next milestone, then the center of a flower, and then one by one they can earn petals until their flower is complete. How many flowers will they grow by summer’s end? Be generous with your rewards!

Step 6: Decide on a Grand Prize

You might want to talk to your parents about this one. They might be willing to donate something—like gift cards to a local bookstore or coupons for a smoothy downtown. Or the businesses themselves might even be willing to donate prizes—especially if you promise to put the name of their business on your anything you print out. Give them a call or shoot them an email. It never hurts to ask!

Step 7: Decide on Start and End Dates

How long to you want to run your challenge? I would suggest at least 3 weeks, but you could go the whole summer. Short and sweet keeps people’s interest, but people might not have enough time to reach their milestones, and that would be really sad. If you have a shorter timeline, people need to be able to reach milestones more quickly. When you set your start date, be sure that you give people enough time to get the books they are going to read.

Step 8: Find Your Readers!

This is the most important step. More people makes things more fun. You might make this a family challenge and reach out to all your cousins. You might make it a neighborhood challenge in which case you could make flyers and put them in people’s mailboxes. Maybe you’ll reach out to your classmates at school. What ever you decide, be sure to get your parents’ permission before you take any action, especially if you plan to do something public (like post your challenge on a community electronic bulletin board).

I’m so proud of you for taking on the challenge of creating this challenge!!

What you are doing here is so cool and will make such a difference to the people who participate. I can’t wait to see your ideas. Send me a picture of what you create. I’d love to see it.