Jennifer Recchio didn’t waste any time getting a start on her summer reading for school.

It took the 17-year-old senior-to-be at Floyd Central High School exactly two days to finish her summer reading — the Ayn Rand book, “Fountainhead.”

“It was a really good book,” said Recchio of the assigned reading for her senior Advanced Placement English class.

She isn’t stopping there.

Recchio recently purchased a fantasy series called “A Song Of Ice and Fire” using a gift certificate to Destinations Booksellers in New Albany she won in a writing contest. And she’s one of 1,500 students who have signed up for New Albany-Floyd County Public Library’s summer reading program.

The program encourages summer reading through prizes, activities and other reading incentives based around a theme. This year’s theme is Get A Clue @ Your Library.

Jeffersonville Township Public Library is running a similar program based around the same theme.

Lori Morgan, public service manager at the library, said more than 600 readers have signed up for the program to date and about 2,000 are expected by the end of summer.

Prizes — such as a pair of spy glasses and a spy hat — are given based on points that are accumulated by readers of all levels. Different types of books carry a different point value. Readers — the younger ones anyway — are given a detective badge when they sign up.

With standardized tests looming only a couple weeks into the school year for most school-age children, keeping reading skills fresh over the summer is critical, Morgan said.

“If they read over the summer, they’re going to be much farther ahead when they start school,” Morgan said.

She said the focus isn’t so much on academic reading as it is on encouraging kids to read what they like.

That’s exactly why Recchio is so enthusiastic about the time she has to read in the summer.

“I can read at my pace and I don’t have to worry being behind or worry about studying for quizzes,” Recchio said.

While the lure of technology is strong — according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, kids ages 8 to 18 spend an average of 48 minutes a day on the Internet and three hours watching television — the book industry is experiencing a kind of resurgence with young adults.

Randy Smith, owner of Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, quoted one industry study that speaks kindly to his business — readers age 12 to 18 bought 25 percent more books in 2005 than they did just six years earlier. It’s the summer, Smith said, when a lot of younger readers are able to explore new books.

“It’s a time to try something new without anyone looking over their shoulder,” Smith said.

Or in the case of the most heavily anticipated book release of the summer, rediscover Harry Potter. The latest book and film release will come in mid-July. Destinations will host a party for the book’s release on the evening of July 20.

Morgan said she’s already seeing a buzz at the library with readers anxious for the sixth, and purported final, book in the popular series.

“We find when there is a new book coming out that kids will come in looking for the earlier books to read two or three weeks before the movie and the new book come out,” Morgan said.

While libraries and bookstores provide incentives and help with recommended titles, many area schools have programs in place to encourage what Borden Jr./Sr. High School principal Lisa Nale calls reading “successes” over the summer.

At Borden, students are asked to keep a log of their reading, which they turn into their language arts teachers. Students receive a host of rewards for meeting reading goals ranging from field trips to see the movie version of a book, extra credit and homework vouchers to new books and pizza parties.

“Personally, I love summer reading programs because my ideal vacation is one in which I can have my toes in the sand and read a book a day,” Nale said.



Who to contact

• New Albany-Floyd County Public Library — 812-944-8464; www.nafclibrary.org

• Jeffersonville Township Public Library — 812-285-5640; jefferson.lib.in.us/