With just a handful of days remaining in the school year, the Mariposa County Library is gearing up for one of their largest programs of the year.
This year’s Summer Reading Program kicks off June 6 on the Mariposa County Courthouse lawn from 10 a.m. to noon.
The Summer Reading Program is an opportunity for anyone, especially kids, to earn prizes for reaching certain reading goals.
It’s sure to be a rawring good time as the theme this year is “Unearth a Story” and is focused on dinosaurs.
“Our prizes and activities are very dinosaur themed,” said Mariposa County Librarian Matt Johnson.
There will be several activity stations at the kick off event including digging for “fossils,” face painting, geode cutting, a selfie station, bubbles, dinosaur races and more.
“Michael Hall is lending us one of his dinosaurs from Jurassic Mariposa,” Johnson said.
“We’re really excited about that.”
The Summer Reading Program is available at all of the library branches in Mariposa County.
“We have different levels and for each level you read two hours and track it,” Johnson said.
“You bring in your tracking sheet to get that level’s prize, then you’ll get a tracking sheet for the next level.”
Prizes this year will follow the dinosaur theme and include items such as slap bracelets, dinosaur masks, a Magic Tree House novel and a voucher for Pizza Factory among other things.
“The grand prize is a pass to the Mining and Mineral Museum,” said Johnson.
All library branches will have most of the same prizes but some branches will have prizes unique to their area.
“Here in Mariposa we will have a Pizza Factory voucher but they don’t have Pizza Factory in Yosemite Valley so we might do ice cream there or another option there,” Johnson explained.
The main goal of the Summer Reading Program is to prevent learning loss over the summer months and to encourage a lifelong love of literacy.
“Each year, we usually have close to 200 people participate,” Johnson said.
“By and large it’s mostly kids but the program is for everyone.”
Adults are encouraged and welcome to participate.
“We want anyone in the community of any age to come and participate,” Johnson continued.
“I want to challenge adults to participate. We all get so busy and reading just does so much for people.”
There are also prizes for adults which include goody bags and gift cards among other things.
Anyone wanting to participate needs to register.
“Come to the kick off event to get registered,” Johnson said.
“It’s simple and only takes about 30 seconds.”
Can’t make it to the kick off event?
Anyone can register any time during the summer by coming into the library and registering at the desk.
The summer reading programs for both kids and adults are completely free and a library card is not needed to participate.
“These programs are for everyone,” Johnson said.
“We want to make it as accessible as possible.”
Johnson gave a shout out to Friends of the Library.
“They contributed thousands of dollars to our budget this year and much of the summer reading program is being paid for with that funding,” he said.
“I want people to know hardly any of this is coming from their tax dollars.”
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