iREAD on the Road: Part 2

Aug 01, 2025

We are more than half way through summer reading and libraries continue leveling up their decorations, displays, and programs. Hit the road with iREAD and let’s see what all of these fabulous libraries are up to! 

Alabama 

Gadsden Public Library - Gadsden, AL 

Llamas in the Library:  We've been having a lot of fun here at the GPL this summer, but the llama program blew the stats for our other programs in June out of the water. We had almost 300 patrons in the library for this event, and we grabbed the attention of local news station ABC 3340.

Llamas and alpacas from Redbird Willow Farm in Anniston, AL visited the Gadsden Public Library on June 20th. Children and adults alike admired the animals, and everyone had a chance to pet them and take their picture with an animal after Michele Hornsby read a story she wrote to the crowd. Michele's story, Just-in Time to Be Kind, is about her son who now lives in Heaven. The story reminds children to always be kind and that kindness is their superpower. 

Illinois 

Mt. Zion Public Library - Mt. Zion, IL  

Life Sized Battleship:  Our teens became the battleship pieces in life-sized Battleship! Teens filled bags with water balloons and tossed them over a tarp wall to try to hit the opposing players. The round stops when either all members of one side are out, or he bags of water balloons are empty. We would then tilt the wall down so teams could see where the other players were. We had water balloons at the end of the hour, so we had a water balloon fight. 

Walnut Public Library District - Walnut, IL 

Do LIFE at the Library:  Walnut Public Library District is a proud volunteer partner with the Sauk Valley Community College Impact Program. The Impact Program is a program available to local high school and homeschool students and provides an opportunity for these students to earn free college tuition! Students enroll in the program, complete 25 volunteer hours per year of high school, complete the FASFA, apply for one scholarship, and earn up to three years of paid college tuition at Sauk Valley Community College. Volunteer hours must be completed at a non-profit organization.

Each summer, Walnut Public Library creates volunteer opportunities for students to come in and complete their hours. We try to create as many opportunities as possible throughout the summer months and on school breaks so students that are enrolled in school activities are able to complete as many hours as possible during their off season. Building parade floats that represent our summer program theme and correlate with our small town celebration weekend created 42 volunteer positions and we signed off on 84 volunteer hours.

This year our 4th of July celebration theme was "Back to the 90's" so we felt that the game of Life represented "Back to the 90's" and "Level Up at your Library" Our float was titled "Do LIFE at the Library!"

Our float took first place in the parade but most importantly we were able to showcase the work that our area high school students have accomplished as part of the Impact Program. 

Princeton Public Library - Princeton, IL

Life-Size Candy Land:  Life-Size Candy Land was a regular winter program pre-Covid, and we decided to get it out of mothballs for Level Up at Your Library. We used laminated sheets of colored construction paper for the squares (with special location and action squares that we made in Canva), taped down to our carpet with clear packing tape. Students from our local high school's drama department played the characters for our opening event and we wrote a short skit for them to introduce the game. We decided just to have a small bag of candy for each participant at the end (given out at the Candy Castle by King Candy) rather than have each character hand out candy, since we actually played the game (i.e. we had 5 numbered spinners for 5 players to be on the game board at a time.) and I thought it might be awkward for participants to juggle candy and the spinner. However, this meant that the characters had less to do, though I encouraged them to improv/interact, and I basically just called out numbers (for each spinner to take a turn) throughout the event. In our holiday version, it was more of a cakewalk, where each player spun a number (or pulled a colored ball) as they entered the game, and then we just had everyone move to the same color in lock-step (cakewalk fashion). I guess there are pros and cons for each method. We planned to keep the game set-up without characters for a week following our initial event and ended up keeping it up a second week because it was so popular, with kids returning to play several times. We had about 50 children attend the opening event.

Elmhurst Public Library - Elmhurst, IL 

Small teams of staff each took a section of the kids' area to decorate. We used a variety of themes, including video games like Pacman and Minecraft, board games like Scrabble and Monopoly, and even playground games. We took inspiration from the Resource Guide and utilized some of our library's tools, including Canva and the large format printer in the Makery. Kelsey created a giant "Super Library Bros." box for kids to put their raffle tickets into, complete with pixelated versions of all the staff in our department. I am amazed at everyone's creativity! Families frequently comment on how much they love the decorations, including some comments about all the items hanging from the ceiling for their babies in strollers to look up at.

Massachusetts

Needham Free Public Library - Needham, MA

Summer Reading Level Up:  Needham is celebrating Level Up with Reading Dragon Cards. A balloon archway created by Wow Balloons of Boston decorated the Children's Room entrance, guarded by two dragons. A large green dragon promotes our Summer Reading books. We have a Dragon Race in which a dragon is named foreach elementary school. The school that has the highest average reading hours per student wins a reading trophy for their school. The more children read, the further their school dragon flies. Children regularly check the Dragon Race to see if their school is winning!

Rhode Island

Exeter Public Library - Exeter, RI

Level Up at the Library - The Library participates in the town Memorial Day Parade every year with a float based on the iRead theme. This year all about Minecraft! We reuse the decorations throughout the library all summer.

Warwick Public Library - Warwick, RI

Warwick Public Library 's Towering Tapir Gordon:  We all fell in love with Gordon and his book. In Rhode Island we have a statewide Scavenger Hunt to find Gordon at public libraries and we like to say you found the largest Gordon in RI at the Warwick Public Library. More Fun and Games with Gordon. Our book-monopoly and our video game wall (can you spy Gordon and his friend in the castle?).