Reading Challenges

Preschool-age children are invited to read 20 books that have earned the prestigious Caldecott Medal award.

The library challenges students from kindergarten to middle school to read titles from the Monarch, Bluestem, and Caudill award lists. If you complete the challenge for your age group, you will receive a prize (starting November 4). You can also vote at the library for your favorite book from the lists from February 1–March 13. Voting for the Caudill Award runs from February 1–26 only.

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is a national initiative that encourages parents to read with their children before kindergarten. Reading to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers helps them develop important skills they’ll need for school. Additionally, it promotes a lifelong love for books and provides a chance for you to bond with your child in a unique way.

Join our reading challenge and begin collecting brag tags. Readers in kindergarten through grade 5 can select and collect tags for every 10 books they read. Fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels—everything counts! Sign up at the Youth Services Desk to get a reading log and your first tag. Read at your own pace, and when you’ve reached the goal, visit the Youth Services Desk to choose a tag. Collect as many as you can!

Challenge yourself to read 60 books before high school!

Readers in grades 6–8 can sign up at the Youth Services Desk to receive a starter pack which includes book tracking sheets. For the first 10 books that you log in a school year, you will receive a small prize. When you have logged a total of 20 books for the school year, you will receive a book to keep. Participants who read 20 books in 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grades will receive a high school survival kit.