Summer Reading starts Friday, June 5!
Sign up on Beanstack starting Monday, May 25 and track your reading Friday, June 5 through Saturday, August 22.
![An ankylosaur named Agnes sitting and reading a book . Illustrated.]()
Our Summer Reading program encourages you to read throughout the summer while you’re off from school. (Studies show that this will help you when you start school in the fall, PLUS it’s a great time to read whatever you want, for fun!)- We have reading programs for any age; the Teen program is for t[w]eens entering 6th grade through entering 12th grade.
- You do not need to have a Park Ridge Library card to participate, but you do need to have an account on Beanstack.
- Any type of reading can be logged for the program – audiobooks, books read to you, e-books, e-audiobooks, graphic novels, fiction, nonfiction, magazines, manga – if you can read it, it counts! If you’re not sure where to start to find what you’d like to read, check out the teen page on our website for booklists and other ways to start!
- Our mascot this year is an ankylosaur named Agnes.
Our Summer Reading program encourages you to read throughout the summer while you’re off from school. (Studies show that this will help you when you start school in the fall, PLUS it’s a great time to read whatever you want, for fun!)- If you’ve participated in a reading program in the past, you already have an account in Beanstack, so you can check with a staff member to find your login information, or click the links on the login page to reset your information on your own.
- If you’ve participated in our reading programs when you were younger, you probably have an account under a parent/caregiver. To start fresh with your own contact information, just make a new Beanstack account. NOTE: School email addresses usually block emails from outside the school. Please use a personal email address.
- Please double-check that your contact information is correct – all prize winners will be notified via email.
- BONUS: there is an activity (which earns you a raffle ticket) to enter your cell phone number to be notified by text.
- To log, click “Log Reading and Activities.”
- Log each day that you read in Beanstack – any day that you read at least 20 minutes counts as one day! You can log multiple days at once, or as you go, and the days you read don’t have to be all in a row.
- NEW THIS YEAR: After 10 days of reading, you’ll earn a pair of sunglasses in addition to your virtual raffle ticket.
- Complete the program after logging 30 days of reading, but if you want to keep going & earning virtual raffle tickets, you can earn rewards for up to 70 days!
- Check out our activity list in Beanstack to earn virtual raffle tickets for attending programs or doing other library-related things.
- Make sure you enter your virtual raffle tickets into the prize drawings in Beanstack before August 22!
- For every 10 days you log, you’ll earn a virtual raffle ticket as well as for every activity completed. Each virtual raffle ticket also comes with a physical vinyl sticker that you can choose from our sticker stash next time you visit the Teen Loft!
- NEW THIS YEAR: After 10 days of reading, you’ll earn a pair of sunglasses in addition to your virtual raffle ticket.
- After 30 days of reading logged, you earn a prize book. We’ve got book selections for 6th-7th grade, 7th-9th grade, and 9th grade & up.
- Check out our prize poster in the Teen Loft.
- There are three tiers of prizes, grouped by their value.
Tier 1: you may enter an unlimited number of virtual raffle tickets.
Tier 2: you may enter a limit of 3 virtual raffle tickets.
Tier 3: you may enter a limit of 1 virtual raffle ticket. - Prize winners will be notified only via email; an activity is available to provide a phone number for an additional notification via text.
- Summer Reading Prizes are made possible by a generous gift from the Friends of the Library.
- Borrow a charger from the Loft desk and return it when you’re done.
- Sign up for 100 Books Before Graduation and pick up your starter kit.
- Take a look at our program calendar and see if there’s something coming up you’re interested in attending. If so, sign up!
- Ask a library-related question you are curious about the answer to the staff person at the Loft desk.
- Get a recommendation from a booklist and check the book out to read!
- Ask for a cloth and cleaning spray to clean one of the tables in the Loft.
- Tidy up the colored pencils in the Loft – sharpen & balance the colors between containers.
- Give a sincere compliment to someone in the Loft that you know.
- Read or listen to an ebook or eaudiobook that you checked out from the Library.
- Do a Take and Create (available while supplies last) or other craft available at the Loft desk.
- Tell the staff person at the Loft desk about your favorite book.
- Tell the staff person at the Loft desk about the last book that you read.
- Share your thoughts with us using our Lofty Thoughts feedback form.
- Read a physical book you checked out from the Library.
- Show us your existing (or new) library card to receive not only a virtual raffle ticket and sticker, but a small prize!
- Submit a finished coloring page to the Teen Loft Art Book.
- Tell the staff person at the Loft desk a funny (and school-appropriate) joke.
- If you prefer to receive a text message if you win a prize, please share your phone number!
- Push in your chair and tidy up your table when you are finished and leaving the Loft.
- Visit the Teen page on our website and look at all the resources there.
- Ask for a sticker at the Loft desk and vote on the board outside the Loft door.
- June 5: Summer Reading begins
- June 14: Day 10 – first day to earn a pair of sunglasses!
- June 24: Day 20
- July 4: Day 30 – first day to earn a prize book!
- July 14: Day 40
- July 24: Day 50
- August 3: Day 60
- August 13: Day 70
- August 22: Last Day of Summer Reading and Last Day to Enter Virtual Raffle Tickets
- I will be out of town this summer. Can I still participate?
Yes! You can log your reading online in Beanstack from wherever you are and put your virtual raffle tickets into drawings. As long as you enter your tickets before August 22, you can qualify for a prize. - What if I’m not coming back to town until after August 22?
No problem! You can do everything for the Teen Summer Reading program online, and we will have prize books available for pickup well after the program ends. - I’m going into 6th grade. Should I do the Kids’ program or the Teen?
Entering sixth graders are eligible to participate in both programs as you transition from the Children’s Department up into the Teen Loft! - I have to complete Summer Reading for an assignment for school. How do I do that & how do I show my teachers that I did?
Log 30 days of reading to complete the Summer Reading program. In your Beanstack profile, click “Badges.” If you have logged 30 days, you’ll also have a program completion badge. - Can I do 100 Books Before Graduation and Summer Reading at the same time?
Absolutely! You’re just logging different things for each program. For 100 Books Before Graduation, you’re logging individual books by title as you finish reading them; for Summer Reading, you’re logging the days that you read those books.
