Book Club › For club leaders › Summer kit
A summer reading program kit for libraries and schools
1. The summer reading challenge
Use Peabody's own summer reading challenge for 2027 (1 June to 31 August: 20 books for ages 5 to 7, 12 for 8 to 10, 8 from 11 up), or make your library's own with its own dates and finish lines; the maker starts from the summer and gives you a poster with a QR code for the desk. Readers on a screen scan it and log their books on their own devices; readers on paper use the pack below. Both count.
2. The take-home pack: a summer reading log, a library passport and more
Four sheets for every family that wants paper: a letter to families with blank lines for your library and your finish lines, a summer reading log a week to a row (no nightly signature), a library-visit passport with twelve boxes to stamp, and a shelf of twenty spines to colour. Print the pack and copy it, or print one sheet.
📚 Our summer reading challenge
From ______________________________ (library or school) · ____ June to ____ August
Dear families,
This summer we are running a reading challenge, and every reader from the youngest up can take part. The finish line is a number of books, not minutes: a book a child can see on a shelf.
- Ages 5 to 7: ____ books. A book a grown-up reads aloud counts, and a favourite read again on another day counts again.
- Ages 8 to 10: ____ books.
- 11 and up: ____ longer books.
On paper: colour a spine on the shelf chart for each book, write the books on the reading log, and bring the passport when you visit us for a stamp. Bring the chart in at the finish for a certificate.
On a screen: scan the code on our poster (or the one below for Peabody's own summer challenge). Each child picks an animal face, never a name, and taps to log each book; the shelf fills on your own device, and nothing is sent anywhere. The certificate prints at the finish with a finish code we can check.
Happy reading,
______________________________
🌞 My summer reading log
Reader: ____________________ · Age: 5–7 · 8–10 · 11+ · Finish line: ____ books
| Week | Books I finished this week | How many |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 5 | ||
| 6 | ||
| 7 | ||
| 8 | ||
| 9 | ||
| 10 | ||
| 11 | ||
| 12 | ||
| 13 |
No signature needed each night: a grown-up can initial the week, or not at all.
🛂 My summer library passport
Reader: ____________________ · Library: ____________________
Bring this when you visit and ask for a stamp or a sticker in the next box. Twelve boxes, a visit every week of the summer.
📗 My summer shelf
Reader: ____________________ · Colour a spine for every book you finish.
Finished early? Keep going: the next spines are yours to draw.
3. The desk tally and the end-of-summer report
On the desk's computer or tablet: a tap when a reader signs up and a tap when one finishes, by age. It counts today, this week and the summer, and prints the report for your board, a week to a row, with the share who finished. Save it as a spreadsheet, or as a file to carry to another computer. It holds counts and nothing else.
4. Finish codes, and prizes
Every certificate a reader prints from a Peabody challenge carries a finish code of eight letters and numbers. Type it into the finish-code check and it tells you whether it is a real finish, of which challenge, on which day: no list of readers needed, and nothing sent. A child on paper brings their coloured shelf instead, as always. A class can keep its count on the board with the class tally.
What Peabody keeps
Nothing about your readers. The desk tally is kept in your browser on your device and holds only taps by age. Readers' books stay on their own devices. A finish code is worked out from the certificate alone. Peabody counts only that the kit's tools were used, never what was counted.