Golden Ticket Book Fair rewards summer readers
From left, Xander and Alba Miller rush to check out the "Dog Man" graphic novels available at the Golden Ticket Book Fair at Jefferson Elementary Center Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
Dozens of families took advantage of the Golden Ticket Book Fair which rewards students for reading during the summer. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, Erin and Hannah Fulmer look through books offered at the Golden Ticket Book Fair at Jefferson Elementary Center Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, Xander and Alba Miller rush to check out the "Dog Man" graphic novels available at the Golden Ticket Book Fair at Jefferson Elementary Center Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
Dozens of families took advantage of the Golden Ticket Book Fair which rewards students for reading during the summer. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, Erin and Hannah Fulmer look through books offered at the Golden Ticket Book Fair at Jefferson Elementary Center Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
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PARKERSBURG -- Wood County students traded time spent reading for stacks of new books Thursday during the Golden Ticket Book Fair at Jefferson Elementary Center.
The fair is part of Wood County Schools' summer reading challenge, now in its third year. Students earn golden tickets for the books they read throughout the summer and exchange those tickets for free books at the district's fairs.
"We reward their reading with more reading," said Ashlee Beatty, director of curriculum and instruction for Wood County Schools.
New this year, each parent or guardian attending the fair may also select a free book. Beatty said families can request a particular title if it is not available at the fair, including the next installment of a series a child is reading.
"If we don't have a title that they really want, and they're in the middle of a series and want the next book in the series, we order that," she said.
Students receive summer reading logs developed by Wood County Schools and area libraries. They earn tickets for each book they complete and can pick up the tickets at public libraries, Energy Express sites, the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club and district summer learning programs.
Beatty said the program has continued to grow. The previous book fair drew 254 children accompanied by adults and distributed just over 1,300 books.
"It's grown every single year," she said. "It's been so good."
The program began with a conversation about creating a summer reading log or suggested reading list, Beatty said. That discussion eventually turned to ways students could be encouraged to participate.
"We just threw it out there: Why don't we earn books for reading books?" she said.
The result was what Beatty described as a "homemade book fair." Organizers purchase books throughout the year, arrange them for the summer fairs and allow children to use their accumulated tickets to select titles.
The summer reading challenge is a project of Wood County Reads, a coalition of schools, libraries and community organizations that meets quarterly to discuss literacy efforts in the area. Participants include WVU Extension, the Boys and Girls Club and West Virginia Birth to Three, among others.
Beatty said Hap Esbenshade helped establish Wood County Reads and has supported literacy programs in the community for years.
The book fair is fully funded by the Spartan Foundation and Hap and Meg Esbenshade.
"We're so thankful for them," Beatty said. "They have funded things literacy-focused for years."