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As the school holidays draw to a close, libraries throughout New Zealand are celebrating the success of children completing their summer reading programmes.

Mayors and councillors in many communities will be joining the children, their families and library staff in celebrations to mark the children's achievements. (Auckland City libraries organised a special evening at the Auckland Zoo for 1500 children, and Stratford District Library a free session at the movies for 50 children.)

Summer reading programmes ensure that 5- to 12-year-olds keep up their reading mileage. They are given a reading pack and log the time that they spend reading each week, list the books that they have read, and report to their local library, receiving a small incentive each time.

Sandy Green from Masterton Library reports that the 23 small libraries in the 13th year of their EC Read'n Network registered 3732 children with a further 4134 children registered in participating libraries elsewhere in the country. This does not include libraries like Auckland City and Hamilton which offer their own programmes, and North Shore libraries, which run the Rakau Reader programme.
Find out more about your libraries: www.nzlibraries.com

-Frances Plumpton