2024 Summer Reading Slogan for all ages is “Adventure Begins at Your Library: La Aventura Comienza En Tu Biblioteca” to highlight this summer’s Adventure theme. 

The artist for all ages of the 2023 program is author-illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal. Her debut as author-illustrator was the book Alma and How She Got Her Name, that received an 2019 Caldecott Award Honor and a Ezra Jack Keats Award Writer Honor.  She received the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal in 2020 for her book Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story. In 2018, she illustrated the book La Princesa and the Pea, written by Susan Middleton Elya, and that won her the 2018 Pura Belpre Illustrator Award.  She has also written and illustrated Zonia’s Rainforest (2021), and illustrated I Don’t Care, by Julie Fogliano (2022),  A Perfect Fit by Mara Rockliff (2022), Tomatoes for Neela by Padma Lakshmi (2021), Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry and many others.

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Statewide Summer Reading Program

2023 Summer Reading Program Statistics:

Total participants – all ages	107,097
Number of participants that achieved their goal – all ages	56,616
Total programs  – all ages	23,961
Total program attendance – all ages	515,610

(All ages = children, teens, adults).

This year NJ again asked the same survey questions as other states participating in the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP). This was done to develop a level of consistency in the questions across all the states. The number of books read by NJ children, teens and adults was again included this year as an optional question for libraries. Individual libraries determined the goal for their participants (e.g. registration, completion of a reading log, meeting the reading goal by reading a certain number of minutes, hours, days, etc.).

• Number of books read by children and teens  (optional question) = 544,323
• Number of books read by adults (optional question) = 58,398
• Number of books read by all ages (optional question) = 602,721
• Libraries that submitted survey responses = 200

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Sponsorship

New Jersey is a member of the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP).  Almost all states, including the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Mariana Islands, the Federated Islands of Micronesia, Guam, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands are members of CSLP.  The CSLP website allows staff from all New Jersey public libraries to access the special features,  online order form and other materials on the site, but to access them, you must register first. Any public library staff member is eligible to use the registration system to access the resources found on this members-only website.

The New Jersey Summer Reading Program is coordinated by the New Jersey Statewide Summer Reading Committee through funding from the New Jersey State Library. The program encourages everyone of all ages to read for fun during the summer.  The NJ Summer Reading Program website maintains a directory of performers; programming ideas for children, teens and adults; information about discounts for summer reading prizes; registration information for summer reading workshops; and a survey link for statistics from your program. The website is restricted to NJ public librarians or staff and you must first register to access the website. However, there are resources under the Educators Tab that can be accessed without having to register to access the website.

The New Jersey Summer Reading Program is also on Facebook.

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Materials

Manual, Incentives, Clip Art, Reproducible Forms

All public library staff are given a code for their library building to access the online manual that contains programming ideas for early literacy, children, teens and adults. This code should not be shared with the public. All public libraries receive online access to the manual. They also receive an incentives catalog with an order form for summer reading materials from the CSLP.  Each year public libraries participating in the Summer Reading Program receive a children’s banner, a children’s, teen, and adult poster and children’s, teen, and adult bookmarks for free courtesy of the NJ Summer Reading Program. These will be shipped to them in the spring.

Clip art is available in color and black and white and included in the online manual. Clip art is also available in the manual in black and white for photocopying. There are also reproducible forms and handouts included on the online manual.

You can also create your own supplementary materials if you prefer and adapt the program to your community’s needs by using the materials, clip art, and digital art that come with the online manuals. There are rules for use of the artwork, so please respect these and general copyright laws.

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Other Downloadable Materials

You can also find downloadable children’s signing videos, slogans in Spanish and PSAs for the summer reading programs on the Downloads page of the CSLP website.

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Evaluation

If you participate in the summer reading program, the New Jersey Statewide Summer Reading Committee would like to have some feedback. A link to a survey will be posted on the NJ Summer Reading website by August 15th. Be sure that you keep statistics of the number of participants, number who met their reading goal, number of programs offered and the attendance, and number of books read (optional question) during the summer reading program so that you will be prepared to report back. This report will be due in September of each year.

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Promoting Your Program

To hear and download radio public service announcements for the current year’s summer reading programs for children and teens, visit the CSLP web page, where these are posted in the spring for easy downloading. (If your community doesn’t have a local radio station, perhaps your school would play them on the morning announcements).

Also available at this site are video spots and tips about how to use these announcements to promote your library’s programs. If you have a library website, you might want to run these on your web page. Other tips for publicizing your summer reading program for maximum participation are available in this years manual.

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For More Information

Questions should be addressed to the NJ Summer Reading Program

Co-Chairs Natalie Peitsinovski or Rachel Talbert at njlasummerreading@gmail.com
or the Project Coordinator/CSLP State Representative, Sharon Rawlins, srawlins@njstatelib.org.

New Jersey State Library Contact

Sharon Rawlins

Youth Services Specialist
Library Development Bureau
New Jersey State Library
srawlins@njstatelib.org
609-278-2640 ext. 116