Summer Reading 2026: Plant a Seed, Read!– has come to fruition. And much like our Summer Reading Tree, it was a very full and exciting summer.
Over the six weeks, we hosted weekly programs, which were highly attended, 306 participants throughout the summer.
- Kicking off our program this year was Diane Edgecomb’s Sprouting Tales, interactive stories of nature and gardening fun. (Funded by Douglas Cultural Council)
- Week two we welcomed Rainforest Reptile Shows to come and visit us at the library, where we were introduced to 4 larger reptiles and the participants were invited to pet Mr. Wiggles the alligator. (Funded by UniBank)
- Week three had the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Plantmobile on site for two programs. The younger kids were able to dig in the dirt and learn about soil, while the older kids learned about and created their own Botanical Art. (Funded by UniBank)
- We had a return of Ed the Wizard on week four, where the kids learned his origin story as well as experienced a lively magic performance. (Funded by UniBank)
- Week five was Science Heroes: Digging It, an interactive exploration of the incredible science that surrounds all of us! (Funded by Douglas Cultural Council)
- We ended this year with Robert Rivest, Comic Mime, who taught the audience how to express themselves through movement, facial expression and character voices. (Funded by UniBank)
Along with our weekly programs, Summer Storytime was well attended and when age appropriate, the littles were invited to join in on the Wednesday programs. The littles also had their own special project this summer. With the help of their families, the kids created the Summer Storytime Friends Cookbook (which you can view here).
On top of our wonderful programming schedule, Miss Deb challenged her participants this year. In 2025, the kids read 1,181 hours, this year she challenged them to read just 19 hours more to reach a goal of 1,200 hours. Challenge accepted! In 2026, the Summer Reading Participants logged 1,356 hours!!! At least 55 of these participants read at least 10 hours, putting them in the category of SUPER READERS. These Super Readers were entered into a special drawing for a summer-reading themed quilt (made by Miss Deb herself). Congratulations to Dylan Rosenkranz who won the quilt.
To track the Summer Reading Hours this year, we started out with an empty tree (we goofed and never took the before picture), and for every five hours that a participant read, they were given a leaf to put on the tree. And for every ten hours, they could pick out a special item (an apple, an ant, a butterfly or a tulip) to put on the tree. After six weeks, the trunk of the tree can no longer be seen.
Along with the SUPER READERS raffle, every participant was entered into a drawing for a free Summer Reading T-Shirt, and this year was a fan favorite of The Good Egg and The Bad Seed by Pete Oswold and Jory John! Toby Antoniou won for the Storytime participants and Emma Bieulnis won for the Summer Reading participants.
This year’s estimation jar was much smaller as was the contents. Participants had to guess the number of popcorn kernels, and the closest without going over won a bag of popcorn and seasoning. There were 383 kernels in the “jar”. Declan Meade won for the kids with his guess of 374. And Dorothy McMaster won with her guess of 351 for the adults.
All participants regardless of how many hours read (some read as few as 5 hours) received a prize. They may have struggled or may totally hate reading but they still read and were rewarded as such. Thank you to the Friends of the Simon Fairfield Public Library for supporting the prizes and the Ice Cream Social that was held on the last day of the program.
A big thank you to the 5 volunteers who graciously put in 51 hours of their time. Their time and effort is greatly appreciated. And once again, thank you to the Friends of the Simon Fairfield Public Library, the Douglas Cultural Council and UniBank for your generosity.
Thank you to all the participants for making Summer Reading 2026: Plant a Seed, Read! a successful one!
Let’s see what we can do next year as we blast off into Summer Reading 2027!
“Plant a Seed, Read” is sponsored by your local library, the Massachusetts Library System, the Boston Bruins, and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
This years programs are funded by:
The Douglas Cultural Council & Friends of the Simon Fairfield Public Library & UniBank.