WHAT: Reading Menagerie: Meet the Dragons - Winter Reading Challenge
WHEN: January 6 through May 24, 2025
WHO: Readers age 5 to 12
In early November Youth Services Staff had the opportunity to visit a number of Wisconsin Libraries to see their spaces and to steal their brilliant ideas (I mean, to learn from their experiences and bring some of their best concepts back to Hedberg – with their blessings!)
One of the coolest things we found at Kenosha Public Library was a reading program that allows kids to collect magical creature trading cards for reading AND get together to play a game similar to a very popular card game that rhymes with WOKEMON … The program was developed by enterprising, crafty, game-loving children’s librarians in Ohio. It was so popular with their readers that they decided to SHARE the PROGRAM with other libraries FOR FREE! (Of course, they did! They’re librarians.)
Being in awe of their cool trading cards (they are seriously TREMENDOUS!) and knowing that our readers would love to collect the cards too, we decided to bring this program to Hedberg IMMEDIATELY. So, we did. Readers age 5 to 12 can register and start collecting cards on Monday, January 6th.
This reading program has been growing around the country for a few years, and over 200 public libraries are participating. Most put their own spin on the program, but the thing that remains the same is that libraries can create their own creature cards and then share those cards with other libraries. We think it’s pretty cool that our kids will be connected to libraries all over the country by collecting creatures that they’ve created. (We're also looking forward to possibly adding a few magical Hedberg creatures too! We’ll even have the kids brainstorm some ideas during our Dragon Master Tournaments … but more about THAT later).
So, here’s our spin on the program (drumroll please….) We’re calling our version READING MENAGERIE: MEET THE DRAGONS.
When readers sign up at the Children’s Desk they get a reading log and a starter set of creature cards. For every 30 minutes of reading, kids earn one new creature card. Each creature starts as an egg, then they evolve into babies, teens, and finally adults as the kids read. So, 4 cards for each creature = 2 hours of reading per creature.
Our program begins in January, and we will be releasing 4 new dragon cards each month through May for a total of 20 different dragons (which equals a possibility of 80 cards: or 2,400 minutes of reading which is 40 total hours, or 2 hours per week for the 20 weeks of the program).
Kids who complete one set (4 cards/2 hours of reading) will have their names listed on the Dragon Apprentice honor roll; kids who complete 10 sets (40 cards/20 hours of reading) will be listed on the Dragon Trainer honor roll; kids who complete all 20 sets (80 cards/40 hours of reading) will be listed on the Dragon Masters honor roll.
One additional fun aspect of this program: Dragon Master Tournaments. Once a month all kids who have collected creature cards are invited to play the card game together. It’s similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors where certain cards beat other cards. Rest assured, we are playing only for fun and fellowship. Everyone will go home with all of their cards! Plus, they will have had a ton of fun with other readers.
So – if you know any kids who like to read and LOVE collecting cards – stop at the Children’s Desk starting January 6 to sign up for READING MENAGERIE: MEET THE DRAGONS.