Summer Reading Celebrated at the Boston Bruins Game

Imagine going to a Boston Bruins game and getting to take a ride on the Zamboni or hi-five Zdeno Chara. At their game against the Anaheim Ducks on December 20, 2018, that’s just what happened when the Boston Bruins celebrated the three grand prize winners of summer reading! The winners were all chosen through a random drawing after completing their local libraries summer reading programs. The winners this year were chosen from a pool of over 300,000 children and teens that participated in the annual summer program.

   The prize recipient from Topsfield got to ride the Zamboni before the first period began. She got to be down on the ice riding the world famous ice truck while taking in the sights and sounds of the TD Garden. She made a point to wave to all of the Bruins fans up in the stands. After the ride, she also had the opportunity to try on the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup championship ring.

After the first period, the two other prize recipients from Westwood and Erving went down to the tunnel between the ice and the Bruins locker room and lined up to get fist bumps from the players. Stars including summer reading champions Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Ryan Donato walked by and high fived the two boys who were ecstatic to meet their heroes up close.

To top the night off, the 3 summer reading prize winners got to enjoy watching the Bruins defeat the Ducks 3-1. The Bruins have been awarding prizes to readers since 2009, and summer reading participants from across the Commonwealth look forward to their chance to win at the end of every summer!

In addition to the in game experiences, participants from around the state are also rewarded with team-signed Bruins jerseys and Bruins pucks signed by Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy. In all, 27 children and teens from the following libraries received prizes. You can find out more about the prizes and the summer reading program here.

Celebrating President Kennedy’s Legacy this Summer

Massachusetts libraries are collaborating with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum to celebrate President Kennedy’s 100th birthday and “Build a Better World” as part of the ongoing Centennial Celebration at the JFK Library! This nationwide celebration commemorates one of our Nation’s great Statesmen and proud resident of Massachusetts.

The MBLC has worked with the library to create materials for the Statewide Summer Library Program. This summer’s theme is fittingly, “Build a Better World”. These materials are designed to help people of all ages understand how President Kennedy’s life work has touched so many, and continues to resonate today.

Three toolkits are available, with one for children, teens, and adults, and include biographies of President Kennedy and his family, fast facts about President Kennedy, an interactive look at the President’s desk, film footage documenting the Kennedy family, a selected bibliography of books, and more. The toolkits are available on the MBLC’s public portal and can be found here.

Visit your local library to check out books, and get commemorative posters, bookmarks, and reading lists featuring John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, and to sign your family up for the Summer Reading Program.

Summer Reading with a Purpose

whats-your-four

To me, one of the joys of summer is finding a good book and reading it on the beach. There is nothing quite like the warm air and bright sunshine to make reading extra enjoyable. What made it even better this year was helping to inspire children to read and avoid the summer slide while they were out of school, through our first ever “What’s Your Four?” campaign.

Although I now enjoy reading during the summer as an adult, it was not always my favorite activity growing up, and I always needed a little encouraging. I was not alone. Many children and teens have a hard time reading over the summer, despite the academic benefits that it has been proven to give. In fact, teachers generally spend 4-6 weeks re-teaching what students forgot over the summer at the beginning of the school year[1]. It has also been shown that having reading role-model parents or a large book collection at home has a greater impact on kids’ reading frequency than does household income[2], and that 92% of children and teens say they are more likely to finish a book that they picked out themselves2. Knowing all of this, we decided to do something this summer to try and get kids reading more.

We challenged all residents to choose four books to read over the summer months in a campaign we called “What’s Your Four?” The idea was to encourage children, teens, and adults to read by having Massachusetts residents post four books that they chose to read to social media. It is four books because students who read four or more books over the summer achieve better on reading comprehension tests in the fall than their peers who read 1 or fewer books[3].

In total, we had over 450 posts that used the hashtag #WhatsYourFour, and from these posts, we’ve compiled a list of the over 550 books that have been recommended by participants. These books range from cookbooks, to children’s stories, graphic novels, and biographies. We had responses from the Berkshires to Provincetown, and many local libraries and their staffs got involved to share what was on their reading lists.

The top four books that were recommended by participants on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were:

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub, about a group of college friends in New York City, who now have their own children going to college.

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman, about a grumpy old man who warms up after a young family moves in next door.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, a sequel to the famous Harry Potter series, the book is the script to the play of the same name.

The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, about a dysfunctional wealthy family and its children’s inheritance.

Massachusetts Politicos also got involved and sent over their summer reads. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Attorney General Maura Healey, Treasurer Deb Goldberg, Auditor Suzanne Bump, State Representative Jim Dwyer, Secretary of Education Jim Peyser, and New Bedford Mayor Jonathan Mitchell all shared four books to encourage children, teens and adults from around the Commonwealth to read.

As the air starts to cool and school starts again, reading will shift for many from pleasure to academic. We hope that just how memories of the beach stave off the cold on a snowy January day, the memory of a good book will remind everyone of a great summertime, and will encourage them to continue reading throughout the whole year. You can see a full recap of the “What’s Your Four” campaign here.

[1]Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap, Karl Alexander, Doris Entwistle, Linda Steffel Olson, April 2007.

[2]The Kids and Family Reading Report™ 4th edition conducted by Harrison Group and Scholastic, 2012.

[3]Summer Reading and the Ethnic Achievement Gap, Jimmy Kim, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 2004.

 

Massachusetts Libraries (libraries.state.ma.us) Relaunches

Massachusetts Libraries (libraries.state.ma.us), the online portal for statewide library resources & services first launched in 2007, has been completely redesigned. We wanted to keep it simple and user-friendly while also offering personalized access to catalogs and collections.

screenshot of massachusetts libraries website homepage

Visitors are first prompted to find their local library by entering a zip code, town, or library name. The new site is then customized with access to their home network’s catalog and the Commonwealth Catalog, making it easy to search both locally and throughout the state. It also helps visitors find ebook collections and provides immediate access to online articles. And there’s a new A-Z title list of all research journals, magazines, and newspapers available through our statewide subscription.

In the Your Local Library section, visitors can find out about classes, events, and workshops – such as summer reading and early learning programs, high school equivalency exam prep, and English learning groups – at nearby libraries and literacy centers. The Digital Collections page highlights digital libraries and special online collections, great resources for teachers and students looking to explore history in Massachusetts and beyond.

We’ll be testing the site with users and consistently making adjustments throughout the coming months, so we welcome any and all feedback on the new site! Send your thoughts and comments to answers@mblc.state.ma.us.