Ah, summer.
Camping on the lake, evening picnics at Lakeside park, visits with friends and family from near and far, and of course the Nelson Public Library.
The library you say? Of course!
Not only does the library have all the books about summer things (barbecue 641.578, camping 796.54, gardening 635, road trips 917) and all the fun summer reads you could possibly want with over 6,000 fiction titles to choose from in book format (and several thousand more novels to choose from in e-reader), the penultimate summer-at-the-library experience is also the crown jewel of children’s programming at the library: BC Summer Reading Club.
Admittedly, it’s a bit of a misnomer. It should probably be called the B.C. oh-my-gosh-we-had-so-much-fun-doing-crafts-and-playing-games-and-we-did-some-reading-too club. Because Summer Reading Club is so much more than just reading.
There are two main components to the Summer Reading Club. The first is indeed the reading bit: families can keep track of their reading over the summer with a Reading Record (which you can pick up at the library any time after July 2). Kids can set their own personal goals, such as reading a chapter by themselves or having a picture book read to them, and after checking off seven goals they can collect a sticker. As little as six hours of reading over the summer has been shown to counter the effects of the 'summer slide’ and help young readers maintain the progress they made during the school year.
Since it is a B.C.-wide program, you can also collect stickers when visiting other libraries across the province. Participants who complete their booklets will get a real medal at the end of the summer!
The second component of Summer Reading Club is seven whole weeks of free in-person activities for school-aged children six and up. New this year, the Nelson Library is excited to announce we will be offering Tweens sessions Tuesday afternoons. The school-aged activities will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., July 2-Aug. 14. Caregivers will be able to drop off their children for two hours of literacy, science, crafting, and fun (while the adults get some much-needed chore and rest time).
This year’s BCSRC theme is “Colour Your Summer” with a different focus each week. Here at Nelson Library we will be creating our own fresh take on the provincial theme and including science, climate change, and Indigenous learning as well as super fun crafts and the return of some very popular past successes. We are planning to host a number of special guest speakers, which will include a local children’s author, an educator from the Circle of Indigenous Nations Society to facilitate traditional storytelling and drumming, and a return of the wildly popular magician Leif David.
This year is shaping up to host engaging, exciting, and diverse summer programming so stay tuned! For more information, follow us on social media and be sure to sign up for the library’s events newsletter (www.nelsonlibrary.ca).
See you at the library!
Alys Ford is children’s services librarian at the Nelson Public Library. Check This Out appears monthly.
