Reading to children 20 minutes a day exposes them to approximately 1.8 million words a year. Twenty minutes a day builds vocabulary, social and emotional skills and early literacy skills. What a child learns from birth through age five determines their readiness to read and learn once they get to kindergarten. Adults can help children prepare for school with one simple habit: read aloud to them daily — and begin when they are babies.

With minimal funding for this initiative, NPL staff got creative to ensure patron involvement. NPL conducted a mascot naming contest for the Read to Rise puppet raccoon and created a “My First Library Card." By participating, parents and caregivers get literacy tips, suggestions on pre-literacy activities, reading logs and a monthly activity calendar.

To date, 774 patrons have registered for Read to Rise, and NPL has issued 1,000 “My First Library Cards." Participants have logged 8,621 reading days, and the number of participants ages zero to five in NPL’s summer reading initiative is up 166% this year. Of the participants who took a survey 90 days following the Read to Rise launch, 93% report they read to their child daily (a 23% increase), and 100% have checked out a resource in the past six months (a 30% increase).