The summer reading programs have varying
lengths, as the one in Moville ran six weeks
through July 11, and the Sioux City version
goes through Aug. 10.
In Kingsley, Iowa, the “summer reading
challenge” is for to pre-kindergarten through
sixth grade children, over two months
through July 29. One of the two types of
bingo-style competitions gives the biggest
prizes to kids who complete a black-out of all
the bingo card squares, covering a variety of
themes of books read.
Interestingly, many Siouxland libraries share
the same theme with each new summer, in
branding nationally from the Collaborative
Summer Library Program. This year, the
theme is “A Universe of Stories,” which Dunn
said is designed in part to draw on the 50th
anniversary in July of the first man walking on
the moon.
Dunn likes the uniformity of the national
branding, so a child who visits the library
of a grandparent or another relative in a
different town will see familiar content.
Several children carried their blue “A
Universe of Stories” book bags to the Tuesday
storytime. A few minutes after the 11 a.m.
start time, a young mother went back outside
to a truck, and returned with green reading
cards to turn in.
That sort of parenting pleases Schutt, who
said too many take the easy way out.
“It is easier to put a kid on a computer,”
Schutt said.