ENTHUSIASTIC readers have been rewarded after a summer of turning pages, as the Swan Hill Regional Library ended its Big Summer Reads Program earlier this month.
In total 157 different children entered the program and read the equivalent to 7890 books as kids as young as five got involved.
More than 20 prizes, including Lego packs, gift vouchers, an Apple iPad and a Bluetooth speaker, were handed out.
The program ran from December 1 to January 31 and was designed to reduce the impact of the so-called summer slide, which is when children have a decline in reading and other academic skills due to not being in school.
Entries were submitted as either 10 books read or 10 hours of reading time, and the children were able to enter as many times as they liked to try to promote continued reading throughout the summer break.
Siblings Avneet and Abhijeet Brar both had a very busy summer reading books – Avneet read 340 books during the period and brother Abhijeet was not far behind.
The two have been taking part in the competition over the past three years and look forward to next year.
Swan Hill Library’s Camille Cullinan was extremely proud of how the program had run this year as entrants from places such as Barham, Manangatang and Robinvale took part.
“The program has been so successful over many years,” she said.
“And it just gets bigger.
“The program promotes the joy of reading and allows kids to try out different genres,” Ms Cullinan said.
“It is all about developing skills and advocates the importance of literacy.”
14 local sponsors donated prizes to the program which has allowed the program to grow year on year and make the program one that is very valuable to the local community.
“It is so great to be able to reward the effort that the kids have put in,” Ms Cullinan said.
“We have had fantastic support from our sponsors who continue to generously donate these amazing prizes.”
The event was extra important this year, as lockdowns and restrictions have impacted the ability to head down to the local library and pick out a book to read.
Kids being away from classrooms has also contributed to a decline in learning gains over the last couple of years.
This year the program was run across Victoria as 48 of 49 library services joined up, as entrants were able to participate online and submit their forms digitally as well as complete other educational activities.
