Great Barrington — How’s this for a seven-week children’s summer reading program: 126,292 minutes of reading by 208 kids (kindergarten through eighth grade), with 15 of those reading more than 2,000 minutes.
That’s what just concluded at the Mason Library last weekend.
“We place a high value on having kids become life-long readers,” explains Children’s Librarian Laurie Harrison. “We’ve been doing this every summer. Many libraries take part, through the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP). This year, the theme was Fizz, Boom and Read – it was all about science.”
It wasn’t just about science, and reading, and having fun with other kids, or attending the numerous sessions throughout the summer.
It was also about counting: Guessing the number of pieces of candy in big jar provided by Robin’s Candy Shop. Whoever got closest got the candy.
And the winner was Michael Winn of Sheffield, a fourth grader going in fifth at Undermountain Elementary School.
He estimated there were 1,325 pieces of candy. Not far off. The total was 1,374
The CSLP curriculum allows students to establish their own sites on the library’s Pathfinder computer network, where they can review the books they’ve read and share their comments with other students.
“The kids really got into reviewing and rating books,” Harrison said. “It’s a kind of social networking for reading and books.”
The Pathfinder children’s page on the Mason Library web site offers e-books, a listing new books in the library’s collection, a book club that will start in September for students in grades four through six, math games and puzzles, and the reading lists of the local schools.
“Throughout the year, we offer materials and programs to incite curiosity for young readers,” Harrison added. “We help them find books that they might be interested in, and on the last Friday of every month we have a family movie night at 6:15, where we serve popcorn and soda. We like to have kids feel like it’s fun and interesting to be in the library. If they come for one activity, they see books all around, and they can’t help but get involved with them.”
In November, the library will be hosting children’s book writer Jonathan Hall, author of “Toto the Tornado Kitten,” one of a series of books about his cat, Toto, who miraculously survived the tornado that swept through his hometown of Brimfield a few years ago.
“When he reads from his books, he also brings Toto with him,” Harrison noted.
