The Summer Reading Program Is Over - Now What?
August 08, 2011
Our Summer Reading Program is a big focus of our summertime activities at MCPL. The library staff always enjoys this season as we watch excited children enjoying our special thematic displays and picking out books to read. We especially enjoy our young patrons returning to claim their prizes. This year's program has ended sadly, but don't let that discourage you from visiting us and continue finding new literary treasures on our shelves. May I suggest the following idea?
With a new school year only days away, I would encourage you to visit our Recommended Children's Reading List, which provides you with 57 separate bibliographies of children's books. Each are already connected to our online catalog (for those of you desiring a paper copy of this list, the North Oak Branch has a supply of many of these bibliographies displayed in the children's area). Among my favorites, to which I often direct parents and/or teachers, are the Grade Level Favorites (i.e. First Grade Favorites, Fifth Grade Favorites). It's often a great tool for newer readers or someone looking for new authors.
Hopefully, this tool will give some purpose to your next visit as you prepare your family to go back to school!
Ann R.
North Oak Branch
Comments
Summer Reading Program Dates
JanMarie,
Thank you for sharing your concerns with us. We care about what our patrons think! I apologize for the lateness of this reply, but it was brought to my attention and deserves a response.
I understand your frustration with the gap in time between the end of the MCPL Summer Reading Program and the beginning of the school year. We get a lot of feedback about our program and we take it all into consideration when deciding on these dates.
While we may cease to hand out prizes for time spent reading, we are still offering all of the materials and services we have throughout the rest of the year. Each branch has a team of dedicated reader's advisory professionals who love helping you and your family find that next great book to read. Connecting anyone with a great book is a large reason many of us get into the business of libraries, but connecting a young person with book is particularly rewarding. The books we read as kids and teens impact the rest of our lives in a way few other things can and as librarians, we get to be a part of that every day.
By participating in our program, you are showing your children that literacy is important to you and they will benefit from that. I understand that utilizing the website or database may be frustrating at times and I urge you to call or come to the North Oak branch for assistance. The staff there are happy to help you in any way they can. It is our job to eliminate barriers between our patrons and access to our services and materials.
If you have any other concerns, questions, or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Jessie Alexander-East
Youth Services Manager
816-521-7214
jalexandereast@mymcpl.org
comments
First of all, ending a summer reading program so early is ridiculous. Summer isn't over until September 20th at 7:09 p.m. It is bad enough that kids lose one third of their summer because of school calendars without the library shortening it also.
Finding the place on this website to enter my grandson's books is much too difficult. I do not have an hour to search for it each time I want to add books.
Please reconsider your dates, and please make it easier to find the children's lists on this website.
Thank you,
JanMarie Sajna
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