Library's centennial is focus of its summer reading programs

Summer will be here soon, which means summer reading will, too. The Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library System's summer reading programs started June 1, and this year’s theme, 100 Years of Stories, celebrates the library’s centennial. Summer reading programs will take readers ages 0–100 through each decade of the past 100 years with book lists, events and prizes.

“The timeline for summer reading is the perfect way for us to celebrate our centennial all summer, and to personalize summer reading for our community,” said Sam Lapides, youth services manager. “It’s also the most inclusive initiative we do all year: every branch has something for every age group in our community.”

Parents of infants through pre-kindergarten-age children can participate by picking up the Summer Reading Log with suggested early-literacy activities, such as singing a song together, reading a rhyming book and playing “I spy.” If families complete 15 activities, they will be entered in a prize raffle to be drawn on Aug. 19. Families can even pick up four different Fun Packs—special take-home activities for parents and children—throughout the summer.

Children in kindergarten to fifth grade can also pick up Fun Packs throughout the summer, as well as a Summer Reading Game Board, where they will fill in a book icon for each day they read. After 40 days of reading, they can return it to the library to enter an Aug. 19 prize raffle. Activities on the game board feature ideas to inspire readers to think about the past 100 years, such as reading a book that takes place before 1960, and asking someone older than them what life was like when they were the same age. Throughout summer, the Lee Road Library will host a series of children’s programs, Crafts of the Past, in which children in grades K–5 will make pinwheels and paper flowers, Scottie dog pillows (all the rage in the 1930s), lava lamps (from the 1960s and 1970s), and more.

For middle and high school students, participants will receive a prize just for signing up, and are entered into a raffle for every book review they submit to library staff.

Adults have their own program, the Centennial Summer Celebration. They can visit any Heights library to submit an entry form for each book read or listened to, making  them eligible for a chance to win weekly prizes as well as one of three grand prizes: a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, a prize package of $100 in gift cards, and a Kindle Fire HD 6. Adults can also enter the drawing each time they attend any summer library program for adults.

Details on Heights Libraries summer reading programs will be available soon at www.heightslibrary.org.

Julia Murphy

Julia Murphy is the marketing and volunteer coordinator for the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library System.

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Volume 9, Issue 5, Posted 11:33 AM, 04.30.2016