Bay County Libraries announce summer reading programs to avoid child reading slide

PANAMA CITY − Bay County Libraries have released their summer reading programs for 2024.

According to a news release, the Northwest Regional Library System aspires to help students prevent the "summer slide" by providing a variety of engaging, educational programs that encourage discovery and adventure throughout the summer.

While the summer reading programs are going on, the Bay County Public Library Foundation will sponsor several reading incentives to encourage kids to visit libraries and read more books. The theme for Bay County Libraries' reading program is "Adventure Begins at Your Library".

The reading incentives will take place at the Bay County Public Library, Panama City Beach Public Library and the Parker Public Library.

Summer reading allows children to maintain their reading abilities and skills to make sure they do not lose a step. The reading incentives will feature the following: Camp Read S’More Reading Challenge (Ages 6-11, June and July), Weekly Adventure Themed Raffle (Ages 6-11) and Summer Reading Brag Tag (children and teens).

The Camp Read S'More Reading Challenge allows children to pick up the Summer Reading Adventure log at any of the Bay County library locations starting June 1. The Weekly Adventure Themed Raffle gives children the opportunity to enter a raffle drawing for an "adventure" themed prize. The raffle will take place from June 1 to July 13 with a new winner announced each week.

The Summer Reading Brag Tag allows children and teens to check out an item with a children’s or teen library card to receive a Brag Tag for their backpack. This special starts on June 1.

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Bay County Public Library, Panama City Beach Public Library and the Parker Public Library all have school-aged summer programming schedules released on the Northwest Regional Library System website. Schedules are also available on the libraries' Facebook pages.

Library programs are free and open to the public.