Among the Kuskokwim Consortium Library's summer reading prizes are Kindles, Chromebooks, and bikes.
“But I'm like, 'those toddlers, they don't care about that,'” the Kuskokwim Consortium Library’s youth services librarian, Mikayla Miller, said. “They care about that Bluey car where it has Bingo, Bluey, and the mom and dad, and the car with two surfboards.”
The hot item in question is a toy from the kids TV show "Bluey." Miller knows her demographic. Before school let out, she visited Bethel classrooms to talk about summer reading and why it's important to retain the literacy skills the students learned during the school year.
“I think I said something along the lines of, 'you're trying to prepare not to lose memory,'” Miller said. “You want to enforce your memory of everything that you learned.”
Miller has worked with library director Theresa Quiner since December 2024 to organize this year’s summer reading program. With age brackets for little kids, elementary students, teens, and adults, participants logged the number of pages they read. At the reading celebration, the pages will correspond with chances to win prizes from local sponsors and donors that include Swanson’s, the Alaska Commercial Company, Donlin Gold, and Bosco’s Comics in Anchorage.
The program, called ‘"Level Up at Your Library," allowed participants to win prizes throughout the summer by moving a game piece along a giant Candy Land-style board in the library, marking their reading progress.
“I think that's a lot of fun when people come in to roll the dice,” said Quiner. “You know, a lot of times we end up talking to them about the books they read and what they enjoyed.”
Quiner said that this year, the summer reading program had some of the most participation yet, and a notable number of adult readers signed up. She said that it feels like part of a bigger positive trend for the library.
“I think what we're seeing too, is that we're fully recovered from the pandemic,” Quiner explained. “Finally, our statistics for everything are way up. The number of people participating in summer reading is up.”
Quiner said that the number of library card holders has also been up. More materials are being checked out, and more people are coming into the library.
“We're seeing much higher participation in everything,” Quiner said.
This summer there was plenty to participate in. The summer reading programming included a roster of free events like summer solstice kayaking, tie-dye and puppet making artapalooza, a double feature movie night, and a Lego building competition the community could vote on.
Quiner and Miller said that it's all part of making the library a utilized third space — a place people can go to that is not their home or work. Miller said that it's something that’s particularly important in a community that is transient, with a lot of people coming in and out of town.
“We want to make it a space for people to who are both temporary and permanent to come and find community as well,” Miller said.
The summer reading program celebration will take place Aug. 16 at the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center in Bethel from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. It will feature carnival games, free popcorn, and cake walks, as well as the reading prize raffle.
Quiner said that thanks to the program’s sponsors, any kid who attends the event will walk away with some free books, even if they didn’t participate in the summer reading program.
