Local libraries are where students can go to avoid the perennial brain drain that occurs every summer.
“It’s important for children to read because children who read don’t need to catch up when they return to school in the fall,” said Anne Bultman, adult and teen services supervisor at the Nichols branch of the Naperville Public Library.
The summer reading program starts Wednesday and runs until mid-August.
A 2013 study from the National Summer Learning Association backs up her assertion. Of the teachers polled, 66 percent reported it takes at least three to four weeks to re-teach the previous years’ skills while 24 percent said it takes five or more.
Bultman said she learned at the Public Library Association conference in April that kids who annually participate in a library summer reading program from kindergarten through fifth grade perform at least two reading levels above kids who don’t participate.
This year’s summer reading program, Read — For the Win, coincides with the summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Bultman said the library is using a new, more interactive computer system for summer readers – from children to adults — to log their reading. Participants can create their own avatar and play word games after recording their reading.
Kids are asked to log the number of pages, chapters or minutes, depending on their age level. Teens and adults tabulate the number of books. Bultman said last year teens read more than 8,000 books and adults read 7,600..
Bultman said this year children might like to read a book to learn more about an Olympic sport or a famous athlete. She also suggests The Magic Tree House series from author Mary Pope for younger readers and, for older kids, the new “The Trials of Apollo, Book 1: The Hidden Oracle” by Rick Riordan, who wrote the series of Percy Jackson books that were made into movies.
She also recommends teens check out book four in the Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. And before the blockbuster Broadway musical makes its way to Chicago, Bultman said adults might want to read about the real life of the man in the biography “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow.
Twitter @SBakerSun1
Recommended reading
Naperville Public Library’s summer reading suggestions:
Teens:
“Raven King” by Maggie Stiefvater – Not believing in true love, Blue never thought the warning that she will cause her true love’s death would be a problem, but as her life is entangled in the world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore. It is number four in the Raven Cycle series.
“The Crown’s Game” by Evelyn Skye – Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. When they compete in the Crown’s Game, they realize they have much to lose.
“The Square Root of Summer” by Harriet Reuter Hapgood – Gottie Oppenheimer, a 17-year-old physics prodigy, navigates grief, love and disruptions in the space-time continuum in one very eventful summer.
Adults:
“A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman – A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.
“The Last Mile” by David Baldacci – Amos Decker, newly hired to a FBI special task force, takes an interest in convicted murderer Melvin Mars case when he discovers the eerie similarities to his own life.
“Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow – The biography traces the life of Alexander Hamilton, an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean who rose to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp and the first treasury secretary of the United States.
“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi – The author, a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal diagnosis, describes his examination into what truly makes a meaningful life.
“Miller’s Valley” by Anna Quindlen – Filled with insights that are hallmarks of Quindlen’s bestsellers, this novel is about a woman coming of age as she unearths secrets about her family and her town and surprising truths about herself.
