HPL
Discover Oceans of Possibilities with this year’s Hays Public Library Summer Challenge. The challenge will run from May 23 to July 29.
The library will use the online program Beanstack to track summer reading for children and teens. Through Beanstack, families register participants and use the program to log their reading progress. Staff will assist with sign-up and logging for those without computer access. Challenges have been created for each age group, early literacy, elementary, and young adult.
For children and teens, the Summer Challenge is an exciting way to improve literacy during the summer months. Numerous studies show that kids who don't read during summer vacation, actually slip in reading ability by the time school begins in the fall.
Registration is required and begins May 1, online or in person. Each child who registers receives a gift. A prize will be given to each child who completes their challenge by the end of the event on July 29. Those who complete the challenge also will put their name in a drawing for the grand prize of their choice.
Adults participate in the Summer Challenge by completing activities on a bookmark that can be picked up at the library, beginning May 23. They will receive a tote bag when they sign up. As in the past, there will be ten challenges. Adults will have until July 29 to complete all the challenges and submit an entry into the end of the summer prize drawing.
A day of activities will kick off the Challenge on May 23. A special guest will highlight the theme, Oceans of Possibilities. Kevin Kurtz, an award-winning children's author, will be at the library in partnership with the Sternberg Museum for their new exhibit, In Search of Earth's Secrets: A Pop-Up Science Exhibit. He has written many non-fiction books for children and will be reading Uncovering Earth's Secrets at Storytime.
Kurtz also will be presenting his experiences as an Education Officer on the research vessel the JOIDES Resolution. He traveled with an international team of scientists during an expedition where he spent eight weeks at sea in the South Pacific.
For more information about the Summer Challenge and to sign up on Beanstack, go to hayslibrary.org/srp22 or call 785-625-9014.