Put aside the test scores for a second. Forget all the stuff you’ve heard about how atrocious students’ spelling and vocabulary skills are these days (like yours are that great?). While you’re at it, stick all that junk about kids sitting in front of the TV all day in the same place. Kids around here were reading this summer and we can prove it.
You might have missed the impressive list of 464 names in small print in Friday’s Herald — names of young people who completed the Everett Public Library’s summer reading program. If you happened to skim the list you would have noticed the variety of names, too. Everything from Adams, Jones, Dickinson and Thompson to Abouzied, Bounxayavong, Dovgopolaya, Liu and Stakhnyuk.
Those whose names made it into the paper were the ones who actually completed the requirements — 100 30-minute reading sessions or 100 short books for younger readers. But a total of 1,200 children actually participated in the program, said Dorothy Matsui, head of the library’s children’s series and outreach. That means they read at least 10 books this summer or read for a total of five hours. How many adults can boast such a record the past few months?
"This year there was still quite a bit of Harry Potter," Matsui said. But students didn’t shy away from other authors or subjects. Some even chose non-fiction over the popular mystery fiction books.
The walls of the library’s children’s section are proof the kids were there. Tags stapled to the wall show — in children’s large, still unsteady penmanship — that they came from all over the Everett area. Students from Hawthorne Elementary to homeschoolers to private schools participated. And they ranged in age from 4 to 13.
And the same types of programs occur in all sorts of libraries, around the county and beyond. Go into any community library, and you will find dedicated librarians who are helping to build a love of reading in young people.
To the Everett Library’s credit, it hasn’t stopped there. Once kids outgrow the summer reading program they can still participate in the young adult program. And many did. Slips of paper with book titles and quick, mini-book reports lined another wall in the library. They’re reading everything from Nancy Drew to books of the Bible to Stephen King. It’s enough to put any moderately book-reading adult to shame. Or to make them want their own reading program, too.
One hundred books in one summer. When’s the last time you read 100 cereal boxes?
Yeah, kids these days.
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