Reading incentives? What does your library do?

[Polly Farrington]

At 12:05pm on January 25th, 2008, Susan Schab said…

I am interested in how each of your libraries use reading incentives. We have been giving small prizes and then awarding a large prize to the kids who have read the most. We also have a drawing at our end of summer reading party.

[Martin Suraba]

beautiful idea :) I am a student but i thik that it is great idea for children! I am an advice. Have you some tip for children literature in american or brithis literature? Thanks! Have a nice day.

[Alicia Wikstrom]

We're such a small library that the most kids I've ever had participating in a summer reading program is 24. For the six weeks of summer reading we have a story-hour and I read a book (or two) and we do a craft project and game. Everyone walks away a winner when they come! Tattoos, stickers, and other small prizes are perfect for weekly prizes. When the program is over, kids turn in their book logs and get money to spend at the "library store".

Probably a little more difficult for a library with 50+ participants to do though!

[Eloise]

The kids get a sticket for each book they read, and we have a weekly prize. As long as the kid comes in with one book for the week, they receive the weekly prize which is usually a small toy. The kids have some opportunities for more prizes if they read a lot of books, but we try to eliminate competition as much as we can and encourage reading at your own pace.

[Melissa Newland]

Go to local businesses and get them to give you gift certificates as reading incentives. We have McDonalds, Chili's, Burger King, Dairy Queen and Donut Stores. Walmart usually gives us gift cards for our summer reading program and we use them for prizes in a drawing for the most book read!!

[Vanessa Williams]

As the kids read they earn prizes. The kids have to read a set number of books or hours and their prize is a free book. I started having Scholastic Book Fairs at my library to help pay for these books. But this last year I had over 500 kids signed up and over 35% of them finished. So you do the math on the cost of books. At the end of the summer, I have a big party for those who participated. If they finish, they are put in a drawing for large prizes that are donated by local businesses such as movie tickets, bikes, mp3 players, gift cards, dvds, cds, etc