Summer Reading is just around the corner, and in this episode of Unreadable, Ross is joined by Sarah Brubaker, Programming Manager at FCPL, to discuss how to make the most of this year's Summer Reading Fun! Sarah shares how to get started using Beanstack, as well as some tips and tricks for logging your and your family's reading.
Curious about our incremental and grand prizes, or want to know who is performing at our Summer Reading Kickoff Events? Sarah provides a sneak peak of what you can expect this year. Hint: It's going to be awesome!
Summer Reading Fun starts May 22 and ends August 4, 2025. You can learn more about registering with Beanstack, prizes, and upcoming events on our website.
Introduction
Ross Gericke: Hello and welcome to Unreadable, the official Forsyth County Public Library Podcast for news, upcoming programs, and recommendations. I’m your host, Ross Gericke, the Branch Manager at Hampton Park.
I can’t quite believe it, but it’s already time once again for our episode all about the Summer Reading program. I’m joined by Programming Manager Sarah Brubaker to discuss the exciting programs and prizes available to all ages this summer. Also, check out our programming calendar online and a full color programming magazine that should hit all branches around the middle of May for more information.
Now on with the show.
Transcript
Ross Gericke: Well, Sarah, welcome to the podcast.
Sarah Brubaker: Thanks for having me.
Ross Gericke: I feel like we just got together and talked about Winter Reading, but Summer's already here. I just got the cool new buttons in, so I'm very excited. Why don't you tell us about how Summer Reading is going to work this year?
Sarah Brubaker: There's a lot to be excited about this year. We have fun prizes, fun activities. We're going to make sure that this summer is one to remember.
So, the first thing that anyone needs to know when they're starting one of our Summer Reading programs is an app called Beanstack. Now, those who have been using our library for a while will have used it for several programs. Even some of the schools are using it now. But if you've never heard of Beanstack, it is an awesome app where you can keep track of your reading, and you can sign up for challenges. You can do this wherever challenges are hosted. It's very popular and very easy to use.
So you could just go in there [and] create an account for your whole family that way you've just got one login to manage. You get all your readers together in one account, and you can keep track of everything that everyone is reading.
Ross Gericke: So for our regular listeners and regular library patrons, if they have signed up for Beanstack in the past, do they need to sign up again?
Sarah Brubaker: Nope. They can keep the same account they've used before. You'll just want to login [and] make sure that you remember your password and that you can access everything. Our library staff are happy to help you out if you can't get [into] your account, but we can make sure that you have access to everything. Every year, it'll have you update your age, so some of our kiddos will be aging from one age group to the next. But other than that, there's very little you need to do to keep that account running.
So when you do your reading on Beanstack, you can log by minutes or by books. For one minute of reading, you get one point. For one book, you get 20 points. Now, if you do the math, you have to realize that if it takes you more than 20 minutes to read a book, it's actually better to log your reading minutes. So, for our youngest, we're going to use those picture books as book points. So, we'll get 20 points for each of those books. But for any bigger books, we're going to do it by minutes.
And Beanstack has a couple of really handy ways to log your reading minutes. You can even start a timer in the app that will run while you read, and it will log that time for you. Or you can go back and enter it after the fact. You do not have to be precise. If you just know, I think I read about five hours that day or that week, you can just do it in bulk, or you can do it as you go. Whatever is easiest for you to manage. And that's how you'll get your points.
You'll be logging your reading from May 22nd to August 4th. That is when this challenge runs. So, that's from the last day of school, and then we end the program right before school starts back up again in the fall: So, May 22nd to August 4th.
Now, as you're earning those points, you're going to get notifications in Beanstack that let you know when you have earned prizes. So, all ages are able to earn prizes at 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1,000 points. So, if you are keeping track, that's five different point values when you are earning prizes.
For our preschoolers, you're going to get fun little toys for those point values. For our elementary schoolers and our middle schoolers, you're going to get buttons that you can put on a lanyard. For our high schoolers and adults, you will get vinyl stickers. So, everyone gets a prize guaranteed at those five increments of your point values.
The big prizes happen at 500 points. That's when you get your free prize book. So, all students that are school age – that's preschool, elementary, middle school, high school – you will all get a free book at 500 points. And great news for our adults this year, you will also be getting a coupon to the Friends of the Library bookstore that is valid for a free book up to $3 in value. So, you get to go to our Friends of the Library bookstores that we have at all of our locations and you can get a free book, too.
So, everyone gets a free book at 500 points and that is also the first milestone for getting raffle tickets. So, the other exciting part of Summer Reading is we have big grand prizes, and every 500 points you can get another raffle ticket for those prize drawings.
So, that means there are 10 opportunities from 500 points to 5,000 points where you can earn those extra tickets to get in the raffle drawings. And each age group has anywhere from three to six options for their grand prize drawings. So, you can choose which baskets you want to try and win this year. Some of our themes for our grand prizes are Legos, which are always very popular. For our kiddos, we've got some Squishmallow, Minecraft, Marble Run Baskets. For our adults, we've actually got some experience passes to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Gibbs Gardens. We've got board games. There are a lot of fun things that are options for our grand prize drawings. So, to get the best chance of winning one of those grand prizes, you got to read more.
Ross Gericke: So Sarah, our kickoff events are right around the corner. Why don't you tell us some of the exciting details around those?
Sarah Brubaker: Absolutely. So the week of May 27th through May 30th, all five of our branches, because of course, now we have Denmark Library in the mix, all five branches will have kickoff events. That means that we've got some exciting performers who are going to be coming in with shows.
We've got magic shows with Ken Scott. We've got Cameron from the One-man Circus. We've got Lew-E from the Comedy Circus, and we have Arthur Asthma performing another magic show. So, each location will have two performances that you can come and attend. Those are going to be wild. They are going to be busy. There will be so many people there. Make sure you get there 30 minutes before the show starts, so you can get your entry ticket. We will be out event passes for each of those so that we can make sure that we have space for everyone to come and see the shows.
Some of our locations will have additional activities before and after the performances. So, make sure you check out our events calendar to see everything we have going on that week.
Ross Gericke: And we've also got an exciting new way to display all the various programs that we have going on that we have going on all summer. Why don't you tell us about that, Sarah?
Sarah Brubaker: Absolutely. This is the first year we will actually have a magazine that has the events for all five branches printed and available for everyone to see all at once. So, we wanted to make sure that anyone going to any location had the ability to see all of the amazing programs and events that we have going on this summer. So, be expecting to see that in the branches about mid-May. For sure by the time we get those kickoff carnivals, you'll be able to pick one up. But, if you sneak in a little early, we can make sure that you get one of those magazines in your hands. And you will have all of the programs from May 22nd to August 4th listed in one easy to view place. We will also have that magazine on our website as a digital flip book in case you want to access it from home.
And of course in the meantime and through all time, we have our events calendar on our website where you can look at all the events that are coming up and you can filter them by age group, location, program type, and date. So that way you always have access to the information about our upcoming programs.
Summer Reading Fun would not be possible without the generous funding from our sponsors, the Friends and Advocates of Forsyth County Public Library and the Rotary Club of Forsyth County. These two sponsors are so generous with their funds to make sure that we have incredible prizes available for everyone. That's how we're able to give everyone a free prize book. That's how we're able to have these amazing grand prizes that we can offer as incentives. So, we want to just thank them for their continuing generosity. They've been supporting us for years, and we look forward to continuing to work with them for many years to come.
Ross Gericke: Man, it sounds like another great summer is right ahead of us.
Sarah Brubaker: That's right. I'm excited.
Ross Gericke: Thanks for coming on the podcast, Sarah.
Sarah Brubaker: Of course. Happy to be here.
Outro
Ross Gericke: Thank you for listening to the May 2025 episode of Unreadable.
Please subscribe to our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Contact the podcast directly with any comments by email at Unreadable@forsythpl.org
Keep up with all the excitement happening each month on our interactive calendar available on our website, www.forsythpl.org. You can also stay connected with the library through Facebook and Instagram @FOCOlibrary.
Our theme music is “Open Those Bright Eyes” composed by Kevin MacLeod. This and other compositions by Kevin MacLeod are available at Incompetech.com
I’m Ross Gericke, and this podcast has been Unreadable.
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