*The internet seems to f****** HATE story telling on blogs. Well, best be hoppin’ off this if you do because this whole post is one giant story time
I LOVED participating in the Summer Reading program they had available at the local library (said in my best PBS kids voice)
It (along with free school lunch) was one of the only ways we got out of the house. You see, Phoenix summers are like that of the winters back East. You’re stuck inside but instead of it being from piles of snow it’s because of scorching, deadly heat. Don’t have a pool? Well, then you’re extra screwed. We were extra screwed. It’s part of what has given me my seasonal depression that shows up on cue every spring as I internally agonize over the approaching summer months and god forsaken heat....
Back to book reading. Trips to the library were a joyous reprieve from the monotony of the day, as well as a welcomed venture into a HIGHLY air conditioned building that we could relish in for an hour....or more. Please, more. (who can afford a library low thermostat at home in Phoenix...certainly not us) I loved going and picking up my pamphlet from that folded out into a game type board and having the librarian explain the program to me. I know we live in a modern digital world, but I looked it up and in my area the program seems to be entirely online now. I tell myself it’s good for the environment (less paper) and now more accessible to kids who don’t go to the library often....but I gotta admit it also bums me out. I always felt so official leaving the library with my “paperwork” in hand. It was exciting! Kids these days could probably care less that they don’t get a an official board but I’ll just be sad enough for both of us about it.
The program was taken VERY seriously in my family. Each square on the board was 20 minutes worth of reading so my mom would set a timer to ensure we were meeting our marks. We even included some of our neighborhood friends in it. I have vivid memories of all of us in our living room reading our books in a different chair or corner in such an odd silence for a group of elementary aged kids. Then, my mom’s circa 1980s digital timer would go off signaling the moment I was always waiting for.....marking off a square on the board .
Yes, I was incredibly pumped about it. I now understand where my love of lists and marking things off stems from. Pretty sure it was from this very moment. I’m the type of person who writes lists of things I’ve already done JUST to get the satisfaction of crossing it off *bliss* Everyone had their preferred method of marking their squares, mine was this:
90s kids know how badass these were. How could I possibly use any other method?? A lame ass X just wouldn’t do.
Along the way on your board you would hit certain checkpoints where you got a prize. Here’s the odd thing: Normally I have a steel trap for these kinds of details (if you couldn’t tell) but I can’t remember many of the prizes. I’m pretty sure I remember pencils, bookmarks, maybe some stickers. But honestly I can’t remember much else. I guess marking my squares was prize enough for me. I asked some people what prizes they remember but the replies were slim. Someone said there were coupons for a free milkshake, another said a personal pizza from Pizza Hut....but HELLOOOOO....that’s Book It program....pssshhh.
I remember one year the entire board was Arizona Diamondbacks themed (probably in 1998 when the team was formed) and I THINK the grand prize that year was tickets in the nosebleed seats (don’t quote me though) I don’t think I ever went back for those but my parents wouldn’t have taken me anyway so it didn’t really matter. I may not remember the prizes very well, but what I do remember was the feeling of badassery that came with coming back to the library with my marked up board to collect. Yeah, I read like a boss ass bitch, what of it?!?
Between the fond feelings of nostalgia I have for summer reading and my 2021 goal of reading 12 books (that isn’t going so well...at all) I decided to make my own summer reading program complete with tracking board AND prizes. Just like my childhood, each square is 20 minutes and the goal is to hit 1,000 minutes by August first. That’s over 16 ½ hours which sounds like a lot for someone like me who isn’t in the habit of reading. But breaking it up into 20 minute chunks over the course of 60 days will make it more manageable and help me meet that book goal for the year. The adult themed prizes will be fun too. And by adult I don’t mean XXX, but by all means if that’s the kind of prize you’d like, you do you guurrrl! Mine are things like scratcher tickets, giving myself permission to shop for Christmas décor in the summer, and the grand prize of a massage...yea!
But I also have a blank board that you can customize to your own prize tastes.
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