Summer at Your Library - Find Your Voice

Books_in_row

Find Your Voice is this year’s Summer Reading Program theme. This theme inspires us to overcome the past quiet, lonely years with stories and programs that help kids - and everyone - learn how to make their voices heard and understand how much that matters. Let your light shine!

All summer, come together to enjoy talent shows and open mic events, art exhibits, creative writing clubs, song-sharing,  a chance to be a guest DJ on a weekly radio show, and fun creative drop-in activities across our public library branches. All ages are welcome to take part. Local performers will share stories, music, puppet shows, movement, and more. 

Make Yourself Heard.

Children sing, play instruments, speak on a soapbox, and use their voices.

Summer is for 

Reading and Fun!

Every summer when school lets out, the library offers a program of reading, events, and activities that encourage children to explore the fun of reading and keep their ability strong in this essential skill. Children, teens, and adults are welcome to join this free program.

How Summer at Your Library Works

It’s a relaxed program that works for everybody. Participation is simple.  

1) Sign up in person or online.

2) Read, learn, and play - and track your reading and activities.  Check the Library Calendar for fun library programs!

3) Keep your reading log online or on paper and show that you completed your challenge to be eligible for prizes.

A girl reads while her cat curls asleep beside her.

Step 1 - Choose your summer challenge!

Would you like to have more fun this summer? Do you want to read more, write more, or stretch to a new level? Sign up for the Summer 2023 Challenge. You can get ideas, set your summer goals, and track your progress. 

Pick up a paper reading log at your local library starting June 3, OR sign up for an online account on the Library's Beanstack site (more about Beanstack to the right).

Step 2 - Read, learn, and play!

Read at home, read in the park. Listen to audio books at home or in the car. Read to your dog or cat, read to your kids, your partner, your grandparents, or your friends - or read quietly by yourself. 

Think and talk about what you're reading and doing. Make a speech! Sing a song, share a song, write a song. Write a story, write a poem, write a grocery list. Play with sounds and words and stories. Celebrate life together.

Track your reading and activities either in the Beanstack app or on the paper reading log to complete your challenge.

Step 3 - Children and teens - claim your prize! 

A prize of a gently used book is available to everyone who completes a reading log listing five books or more. (The best prize for reading is more reading!) 

Children can complete three reading logs. At the end, all who have turned one in are entered in to win a grand prize.

Visit your library to claim your prize. Turn in your paper log or tell staff you completed the challenge in Beanstack. At the Eureka Library, visit the desk in the children's room to claim your prize.


To Library Home Page

The library logo - framed by a book, a mighty redwood stands by water and hills.

Beanstack

Beanstack.  Challenge yourself!

About the Beanstack App

You have the option of a free online app, Beanstack, to track family reading. You can also share reading logs and book reviews with friends, and complete reading and activity challenges. 

Use the Beanstack Tracker app or the Humboldt County Library's Beanstack website to sign up for your family's Beanstack account and enroll your readers in challenges. 

Paper, or screen? Try one or both and see what you like best.

Beanstack Tracker

The Beanstack Tracker App logo is a small, sideways heart against a sky blue square.

The Beanstack Tracker App

To get started, download the app from Google Play or the App Store. 

Then, search in the app for Humboldt County Library (CA). There's a Humboldt County Library in Nevada, too, so look for our logo with the waves and the redwood tree to confirm you have the right library!

Humboldt County Library. Look for this Logo

Humboldt County Library logo, a mighty redwood, sea & mountain, framed by a book.

Beanstack Tracking

If you prefer to track your reading on an app, the HCL Beanstack site is at your service.

You can register (or sign in) for your account before the Summer Reading program begins on June 3. Or whenever you are ready.

Take on the Summer Challenge and win!

A boy reads while a dog looks over his shoulder.

Summer ... it's for reading & fun.

Summer reading sponsors. A reader sits under a tree in a grassy summer meadow.

Our Sponsors Support Reading, Learning, & Children's Well-Being in Humboldt

Thanks to the many groups, individuals, and businesses that play a part in making summer reading one of the joys of childhood, and one of the foundations of a healthy, thriving community.

o First 5 Humboldt

Friends of the Library

o Humboldt Sponsors

o The Humboldt Area Foundation

o St. Joseph Health System of Humboldt County

o The McLean Foundation

o The Patricia D. & William B. Smullin Foundation

o The California Library Association

o The California State Library

  • Bandemonium
  • Blake's Books    
  • Booklegger
  • Brio café 
  • Cal Poly Natural History Museum
  • Humboldt Literacy Project
  • Los Bagels
  • Madaket (Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum)
  • Mill Creek Theater (Coming Attraction Theaters)
  • The Minor Theater 
  • Playhouse Arts  
  • Rees Hughes & Backcountry Press
  • Sunsong Yoga


Institute of Museum and Library Services

Humboldt County Library’s Summer Reading program is supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

This help is given under the provision of the Library Services and Technology Act and the CARES Act, and is administered in California by the State Librarian.