This summer (my third at the library, and the third summer with the hybrid summer reading program that I implemented), I noticed a definitive switch in thinking among the kids who participated in the reading program.  Though I bought a large selection of high-quality, fun toys as prizes, more and more kids were focused on earning a bookplate and not on earning prizes.  Many parents told me that their kids really wanted to earn a bookplate, and had set goals for themselves.  Some kids just wanted to reach that thirty hour benchmark, while others wanted to exceed their hourly reading total from the previous summer.  And a few others wanted to have the highest hourly total of all this summer’s bookplates.

Another trend this summer that I found fascinating was that many kids didn’t bother to come in to collect any prizes until the last two weeks of the summer reading program.  These kids truly didn’t care about the toys that they could earn, but were concentrating their reading efforts on getting The Bookplate.   At the six week mark for summer reading, there were only about 3,500 hours logged on to our system; many of the kids who participated had not yet come in to have us enter their hours into the computer.  Now, after the conclusion of all eight and a half weeks of the reading program, there are 6,905 hours logged in – a clear demonstration of how the focus in town has shifted from what you can “get” to taking pride in your reading achievements. 

Most importantly, when kids have come in to select the book in which their bookplate will go, 98% of those kids have chosen a book that they have already read and love: a book that holds meaning for them.  Yesterday I gave up on the book cart full of new books for kids to choose from, putting all of those new books out on the shelves, because only a handful of kids had wanted to consider a new book for their bookplate, let alone choose a new book. 

What does this all mean?  It means that the kids who participate in the summer reading program are now more excited about the act of reading and about the books they read than they are about what toys they can bring home with them.  They are thinking long and hard about the legacy that they are leaving in the library when they choose the book that will hold their bookplate; when someone else checks out “their” book, they know that the unwritten subtext of their bookplate says something like, “I am John, and I loved this book.  I recommend it to you.”  And they are also leaving markers for themselves in the library.  Many kids went to the stacks to look at their bookplate from last year, and smiled at the book that they had chosen a year ago.  As the years pass, they’ll be leaving a trail of books that show their growth as readers from one year to the next.

I remain deeply indebted the Massachusetts children’s librarian who so generously gave me this bookplate idea.  Thank you, thank you, thank you – it’s the best part of our summer reading program.

[And, for the record, this year I decided that I should put a bookplate of my own into a book, since for three summers now I have also read the prerequisite thirty hours.  I chose The Emerald City of Oz, and put into it a bookplate in honor of my mom, since she always bought Oz books for me from the teahouse in Wenham.]