Youth Summer Reading Program Announced

“Reading Around the World” is the theme for this year’s summer reading program at the C.H. Booth Library. The program kicks off Tuesday, June 26, with two performances by Full Effect Productions, and a special children’s book sale sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

The Friends are busy setting up for their annual sale to be held at the Reed Intermediate School, so the children’s summer reading sale will be held in the story hour room at the library from 10 am to 3 pm on June 26. Both fiction and nonfiction selections will be available for children ages pre-school through high school. Prices are very reasonable, so plan to stock up for summer vacation reading. Many more children’s titles will be for sale during the June 30 to July 4 book sale at Reed.

Full Effect Productions will perform Paws, Claws, Scales & Magic Tales on June 26 at 11 am and again at 1 pm. This around-the-world adventure is full of laughter and magic, geared for children ages 4 and up. Full Effect Productions out of Cliffwood, N.J., provides quality entertainment to stimulate the imagination and inspire and motivate children. No signup is required, but seating is limited to the first 75 to arrive for each performance.

Summer reading signup is on-going, beginning June 26 and ending August 18. This independent reading program sponsored by the Friends of the Library and area businesses who have contributed incentives to keep children motivated to read this summer is the perfect vessel for encouraging readers aged 4 through grade 5.

To commemorate the Booth Library’s 75th birthday, two private birthday party grand prizes have been donated by marshal arts master Leif Becker of Southbury Academy of Karate, and Debbie Holmes, owner of Ta-Da! in Sand Hill Plaza. The parties will be raffled off at the end of the reading program. Children can earn chances to win one of these great parties every time they read five books. 

Additional prizes will be raffled each week, including free martial arts classes, a $20 ice cream certificate from Ferris Creamery, a Webkinz pet from the Magic Garden, and personal pizzas from Franco’s. Each child who reads five books will earn a voucher for the New Britain Rock Cats baseball game on August 15. For ten books read, a voucher for a free pizza slice from My Place Restaurant on Queen Street will be awarded. Bring the total up to 15 books and a voucher for a donut from Dunkin’ Donuts sweetens the pot.

Studies show that libraries play a very important role in supporting children in their development as readers, and more than any other public institution, public libraries support the intellectual growth of children over the summer through their literature based programs. Check out a listing of all the programs offered this summer in the library’s weekly column in The Newtown Bee or view the calendar link on the library’s website at www.chboothlibrary.org.