Children will maintain their reading achievement skills over the summer with support from Idaho libraries.

Libraries will hold at least one outreach event with parents and caregivers to deliver face-to-face information on the importance of reading during the summer months. Each family in attendance will receive one book.

Through face-to-face contact with parents and caregivers, public library staff

• communicate the importance of maintaining a consistent reading routine over the summer months and during other “out-of-school” time.
• inform parents and caregivers about how to participate in the library’s summer reading program.
• share free and low-cost ways to access books and other reading materials for their children.

• Partner with one or more schools, agencies, or organizations in your community. Together with your partner plan at least one outreach program in the spring or summer at which parents and caregivers will be in attendance.
• Through face-to-face contact with parents and caregivers deliver these talking points about the importance of summer and out-of-school reading routines. Contact can be made by the public library, school library, or school staff (principal, teachers, reading specialists).
• Receive paperback books suitable for age-group to be given to parents and caregivers along with the library’s summer reading program information.
• You will also receive summer reading bookmarks containing information about why kids should keep reading over the summer.
• This program targets families with beginning and practicing readers. We support outreach to families with children of all ages, and will provide age-appropriate books for babies through teens; however, we are trying to make the most impact possible on grade-level reading proficiency, especially in the lower grades. We encourage libraries to focus the bulk of outreach efforts on families with preschool and elementary-age children.

• Summer Reading Data Tracking Sheet (coming soon!)
• Family Outreach Summer Reading Talking Points
• List of Discounted Book Sources
• Summer Reading Resources web page