Summer reading is back with a new twist. Starting this summer of 2019 with changes from English department chair Melissa Thurlwell and librarian Jennifer Naes, summer reading now allows students to read whatever the students want instead of an assigned book.

Overall, the purpose is to hopefully inspire reading for fun.

Additionally, students can pick a teacher and challenge that teacher to read a book with them over the summer for some friendly competition and discussion.

The new program is a chance to read books that the student body chose on a form on Schoology. Furthermore, there is a website that includes book selections to give students ideas.

“We put together on the summer reading website…the titles that were all suggested from our own students. [They] went up on this big list so you can go onto the website and see the student suggested titles among their favorites. There also will be all of the displays in the library through the end of the school year from April and May. [This] will [include] books that students put on that list.” said Naes.

Naes hopes that GCHS meets the goal of the school to read 500 books. Thurlwell explains how she believes the summer readingprogram to be beneficial.

“You’re going to see that our summer reading program does not die in August; rather, it’s something we’re investing in long term. We’re almost looking at our summer reading program as a kickoff to building culture around reading freely,” says Thurlwell.

The whole summer reading pilot is to get students to enjoy reading, like visiting the LRC, reading outside in the warm weather, at home cuddled up with your puppy, or whenever a student wants to read.

Naes explains that some students are “coming over and over again” to the LRC. So hopefully the program inspire more students to pick up a library book and read for fun.