Buller District Libraries’ Summer Reading Programme finishes with a smile

Buller District Libraries' Summer Reading Programme finished with big smiles last week with the drawing of the lucky winners of two Chromebooks.

Ruby Webb from Sacred Heart School, and Harry Keen from St. Canice’s School won the two Chromebooks and were super excited about their prizes.

Ruby Webb says: “I really liked the Summer Reading Programme. I have entered the challenge every year. It was fun putting stickers on my treasure map and getting the weekly prizes. My favourite prize was the swim pass as I love going to the Reefton pool. I didn’t think I was going to win the Chromebook and I was super excited when I found out I had won the big prize. My favourite book I’m reading right now is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The Third Wheel, it is really funny! Thank you for organising another fun reading challenge.”

Harry Keen says: “I liked doing the reading challenge ‘cause I got to read lots of cool dinosaur books!”

Almost 150 children signed up for the challenge from across the Buller district and endeavoured on a Story Quest reading adventure books and novels over the holiday period.

Buller District Council’s community engagement librarian Janelle Hooper says: “This was our biggest summer reading programme yet, with more prizes than ever.” 

For the programme, young readers were challenged to read for 20-minutes or more, at least three times a week during January, in order to collect weekly prizes from their library. Children could choose any reading material they liked, such as books, magazines, eBooks, audiobooks, comics or graphic novels.

If they completed the reading quest, children went into the draw to win more ‘treasures’ including one of two Chromebooks and 64 book vouchers valued at $20 each.

Ms Hooper says “It was incredible seeing how many children were using the library over the summer period and how much they were consistently reading! They all seemed to be really enjoying themselves and we were getting great feedback from parents/caregivers.”

The programme is designed to tackle the ‘summer reading slide’ schools often see over the six-week summer break and is funded through a grant from Pub Charity Limited. This is the fourth year the library has succeeded in securing a grant.

Ms Hooper says: “After looking at all our participants impressive reading logs, I think we can say that it was a great success!”

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For more information please contact:
Community Engagement Librarian
Janelle Hooper
[email protected]