Enjoy choosing books that you might like and read as many as you wish during school summer holidays at your own pace. Summer Stars is all about Reading for Pleasure.

That’s the message from Clare County Library as it announces that the annual Summer Reading Programme, Summer Stars, gets under way for children on June 15th, with additional online activities for all who sign up.

With the school holidays approaching, the summer months provide an ideal opportunity for children to take time to find books they really enjoy and experience reading as an activity which is fun and a source of entertainment.

Access to books and reading for pleasure is well known to have many important long-term benefits. In fact, children who develop an interest in reading have been found to have greater self-esteem and well-being, greater creativity, better social and health outcomes, and an overall better quality of life as they get older.

With younger children, just talking about the story, the pictures in a book and the characters, and making connections from these to the child’s own life can particularly improve their emotional development, confidence and understanding of the world. The advantages that children get from regular exposure to reading material in their early years have been found to last throughout their lives.

Summer Stars at your local library provides the whole family with an opportunity to include regular reading and associated activities in your summer holiday entertainment.

As a Contact and Collect Service through many of our public library branches is now in operation, Summer Stars will be managed in the same way. Children can ask a parent/guardian to phone or email the local library to order their summer reads and a collection of 6 books for each child registered will be ready at a designated time at the library door. Children will receive a Summer Stars log card to track their reading.

Library staff will need to know the age of participants so that they can choose the most suitable books. Irish books and children’s non-fiction books can also be included.

This year library staff are delighted to offer readers the option to include e-books and e-audio books downloadable for free from the library website to add to the Summer Stars reading experience.

Simply choose Borrowbox from the library’s list of E Resources on the library website homepage and log in with your library ID/barcode and password/PIN. With the help of your parent/guardian children can download the app. From the 15th of June, there will be a Summer Stars section on Borrowbox which will have a range of children’s e-books and e-audio books with individual collections for children aged 0-4, 5-8, 9-12 and 13+.

Remember to keep a lookout for the latest posts on Clare Library’s social media channels as there will be fun learning activities in the coming weeks for you to join as part of Summer Stars 2020. There will be words of encouragement from some of your favourite authors, readings by Clare library staff and a Story Competition – An Unexpected Adventure, that will be open to children all over Ireland. Entry details are not available yet but feel free to begin imagining your story right now! There will be great prizes for all the winners and runners up.

So in summary remember to

  • Borrow your books from branches of Clare County Library and electronically from the Borrowbox App after June 15th.
  • Enjoy reading every single book
  • Log onto our website clarelibrary.ie for Summer Stars updates
  • Full details of the Summer Stars programme are also available at summerstars.ie
  • Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media channels for regular Summer Stars postings throughout the summer.
  • List the books you have read on your Summer Stars reading log and remember to return it to your library to receive your Summer Stars Certificate in September.

The Summer Stars Reading Adventure is an element of the Right to Read initiative, which is co-ordinated at national level by the Right to Read Steering Group, chaired by the Department of Rural and Community Development. Right to Read is an annual programme to support literacy and reading development across local authorities and is led locally by the public library service. Key elements of the Right to Read service currently include a network of local partners supporting and co-operating in literacy and reading development activities and a series of annual reading activities including Spring into Storytime, Summer Stars, Children’s Book Festival and Family Time at Your Library.