500 Books Before Middle School

Submitted by Kim Ottesen

We have a new ongoing Beanstack reading challenge for K–5 called 500 Books Before Middle School that started today. This initiative is the perfect companion to the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge. The Youth Services Supervisors have wanted to do this for a while and we finally secured a grant for the start-up funds late last year.

All locations have received prize buttons, stickers and instructional bookmarks to help promote and incentivize elementary students toward a goal of 500 books read before sixth grade. Students will receive prize buttons at 100, 200, 300, and 400 books read. The 500 book grand prize is a green drawstring bag branded with a version of the logo above. 

Reaching 500 books is a huge goal, so we have created a biannual drawing to reward a student from each library who reads 25 books in the previous six months. The prize will vary every drawing, but will be the same at each branch. The first drawing will be held on October 1 and the prize is a Dog Man-themed basket which will be displayed in the branches later this month. We are hoping this drawing will encourage students while they read their way to 500 books by the end of the fifth grade.