Oak Harbor Library users read their way to prizes

To promote summer reading for all ages, Sno-Isle Libraries held a summer reading contest for adults and the grand prize winner hails from Oak Harbor.

September 4, 2012 6:57 pm
Lynn Scoby won the grand prize for Sno-Isle Libraries’ adult summer reading program. She has already set up a “Book-A-Librarian” appointment to learn how to use her new NookTablet.
Lynn Scoby won the grand prize for Sno-Isle Libraries’ adult summer reading program. She has already set up a “Book-A-Librarian” appointment to learn how to use her new NookTablet.

To promote summer reading for all ages, Sno-Isle Libraries held a summer reading contest for adults and the grand prize winner hails from Oak Harbor.

The Friends of the Oak Harbor Library held a reception for Lynn Scoby, Sno-Isle Libraries Adult Summer Reading grand prize winner. Her name was drawn from nearly 1,200 reviews submitted throughout the library system, and she received a brand new NookTablet, funded by the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation.

Scoby has already set up a “Book-A-Librarian” appointment to learn how to use her new Nook to download free books from the library’s website.

Scoby is a lifelong reader and library lover, and submitted 18 reviews this summer. She said that writing the reviews helped her to engage with the books she read in a very different way.

Oak Harbor customers submitted 141 reviews this summer and Friends of the Library gave away 17 Whidbey Coffee cards to devoted readers.

“As a Lifelong Learning and Ready Reader/Family Place Library, we promoted Adult Summer Reading inside and outside the library, everywhere from Storytime with parents to the Chamber of Commerce,” said Mary Campbell, Oak Harbor Library managing librarian.

Overall at Sno-Isle Libraries, 1,169 book reviews were submitted by adults this year, which is a 14 percent increase from 2011.

Children and teens were also big winners at Oak Harbor Library.

Eight-year-old Nerya Rennes read well over 1,000 hours and won “a cookie as big as her head,” a poster of herself holding her favorite book and a chance for the Sno-Isle Libraries Bookmobile to visit her school or another location of her choice.

Thirteen-year-old Jourdan Wallace’s reviews won him a Kindle Fire, donated by the Friends of the Oak Harbor Library, in the teen summer reading program.

Children are still welcome to bring in their summer reading logs, receive their certificate for 1,000 hours of reading, and select their prize, a book of their choice, courtesy of the Friends of the Oak Harbor Library.

Children and teens who read during the summer months return to school prepared to succeed, Campbell said.