Pardi said it's "very important" for kids to read during the summer, and that if they don't, they risk losing a lot of the reading skills they worked all school year to improve in a phenomenon she called "the summer slide."
"Reading at least four books can prevent that loss during the summer so they're ready to go when school starts again," Pardi said. "And most of them who join the club will read way more than that. We've got big readers in Fort Lee."
To join the summer reading club at the public library, kids simply need to sign up. They're then given a journal to record all the books they read during the summer months and earn prizes as they do so to make it more fun.
"But it's all independent; they get to choose whatever they like to read, whenever and how much so it's all up to them, which is the nice part about it," Pardi said. "Any type of book they want to read, we don't give them any rules, really."
She added, "We just want them to read."
http://fortlee.patch.com/articles/children-s-librarian-tells-students-to-dream-big-read-this-summer
