March is here, which means Summer Reading season is near! The valley wide Summer Reading program Maricopa County Reads begins June 1st. The theme of this year’s program is All Together Now, celebrating unity, kindness, and togetherness. Earn points this summer by reading, completing challenges, attending library events, and participating in community experiences. Visit MaricopaCountyReads.org today to sign up to get a program reminder, so you don’t miss out on the fun this summer!

Maricopa County Reads is the award-winning summer reading program provided by the Maricopa County Library District to all public, tribal and military base libraries within Maricopa County. The primary goal of the program is to interrupt the summer slide, the common term given to the learning loss experienced by children while transitioning between school years. The secondary aim of the program is to promote early literacy among pre-readers (ages 0-4) and their families during the summer months.

Several approaches are employed to accomplish these goals:

Interrupt the Summer Slide

• Keep kids reading every day so they will not lose the reading comprehension skills that they learned during the school year.
• Read for 20 minutes a day! Reading 20 minutes a day will help build a lifelong habit of reading.
• Kids and adults can both count the minutes when adults read to kids or kids read to adults!

Advance Early Literacy Skills

• Conduct early literacy education programs for children and their caregivers.
• Encourage teens and adults to read with children and model independent reading behaviors.
• Encourage caregivers to engage in early literacy activities with children at home.

Build Home Libraries

• Read for 20 minutes a day, every day over the summer and earn a free book!
• Free books are available for all ages, from babies to adults.
• You can donate your book to a Head Start Classroom if you do not want to take one home.

Emphasize the Fun of Reading

• Attend fun, literacy-based events at the library to earn digital badges and gain points towards your goal of unlocking a free book!
• Have fun interacting with the online program by completing challenges and earning digital badges.

Connect Readers with Community Experiences

• Visit a community partner to learn something new and earn secret codes to unlock badges and earn more points.
• Try a community experience to connect your kids with books in a more meaningful way by bringing things to life that they have only read about.

The Maricopa County Reads online summer reading program began in the summer of 2013. It has continued to grow, and now hosts 65 public, tribal and military base libraries within Maricopa County. More than 80,000 children, teens, and adults participate in the program annually.