School’s out for summer! Students may be done with classes for the year, but that doesn’t mean the learning has to end. Various libraries across the Valley are offering book clubs for young students to keep up with their reading over the summer break.
In Saint Anicet, the Marcel-Sévigny Library is offering its annual summer book club for kids aged 6 to 12. Fannie Fournier, who oversees the culture and recreation department in Saint Anicet, says, “What’s special this year is that we’ve joined the ABPQ program called BiblioClub. This year’s theme is ‘Mystery and Investigation.’ So, the kids will get to design their own secret agent badges and solve mysteries, and it’s all centred around books.” Annie Dumouchel is running the program this year.
The Association Bibliotheque Publiques du Québec (ABPQ) is an organization that “raises awareness among decision-makers about the importance of high-quality library services to ensure democratic and universal access to knowledge and culture for all,” according to its website. Their mission is to “provide leadership to ensure the development, strategic positioning, outreach, and influence of Quebec’s public libraries.”
But Saint Anicet isn’t the only library offering a club this summer. The Ormstown public library is hosting a reading club for kids in English and in French. This program is offered through the TD Summer Reading Club, an initiative that promotes literacy in young readers, and is offered in over 2000 public libraries across Canada. This year’s theme is “Dive In!” and features all things under the sea.
The Little Green Library is also offering a program through the TD Summer Reading Club. This is a bilingual weekly meeting that doesn’t require signing up. Kids can just show up, read a story, and participate in an activity. Catherine Turgeon from the library says, “It’s important that kids keep reading over the holidays.” She says she feels it doesn’t matter what kids are reading; it just matters that they keep up the habit.
Fournier reiterates Turgeon’s sentiment and says that clubs like this are important because “It’s a way to access culture, too. We see that a lot here; the benefits of reading are extremely important for children and their development.” Having a club like this helps kids get excited about libraries from a young age and encourages them to take advantage of the free services that are available to them in their community.