Reading Challenges

Mental Health Awareness Reading Challenge: May 1–31
Adults: May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Talking and sharing about mental health can be tricky, but we’re here to help break the stigma. Lower your stress level by reading a good book and checking out suggested resources and activities to help on your mental health journey. Log your reading and activities on Beanstack to earn badges all month long. Sign up for this challenge starting May 1!

The Caldecott Award Reading Challenge
Preschool-age children are invited to read 20 books that have earned the prestigious Caldecott Medal award.

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is a national initiative that encourages parents to read with their children before kindergarten. Reading to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers helps them develop important skills they’ll need for school. Additionally, it promotes a lifelong love for books and provides a chance for you to bond with your child in a unique way.

Tags for 10
Join our reading challenge and begin collecting brag tags. Readers in kindergarten through grade 5 can select and collect tags for every 10 books they read. Fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels—everything counts! Sign up at the Youth & Teen Services Desk to get a reading log and your first tag. Read at your own pace, and when you’ve reached the goal, visit the Youth & Teen Services Desk to choose a tag. Collect as many as you can!

60 Books Before High School
Challenge yourself to read 60 books before high school!
Readers in grades 6–8 can sign up at the Youth & Teen Services Desk to receive a starter pack which includes book tracking sheets. For the first 10 books that you log in a school year, you will receive a small prize. When you have logged a total of 20 books for the school year, you will receive a book to keep. Participants who read 20 books in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades will receive a high school survival kit.