Students who participated in the “Build a Better World” summer reading program in Northumberland County broke their own record by reading nearly 15,000 books during their summer vacation.
“Our goal was 12,000 books, which was based on last year’s results of reading 11,300 books,” said Lydia Haynie, a reading specialist at the school. “This year the total books read by students was 14,969, including teachers it was 15,172.”
Last year, students outperformed their goal of 7,000 books. Haynie said each participating student in this year’s program read an average of 51 books.
“This year’s participation is a 12 percent increase in participation for 2016-2017 and 25 percent increase in number of books read,” she said.
The program is the second year of a partnership among Northumberland Elementary school, Northumberland Public Library and the Northumberland Family YMCA. To encourage students to read, the library and YMCA hosted reading events throughout the summer.
