Youth Reading Challenge,

Youth Reading Challenge, Summer 2026

For Summer Reading 2026, we are focusing mainly on the CSLP national summer reading theme of "Unearth a Story," focused on themes including Dinosaurs, Archaeology, and Paleontology. We plan to unearth stories from throughout America's history as well.

Open to all registered library patrons aged birth-19. Participants are asked to read at least 20 minutes every day for eight weeks during June, July, and August. But we are not sending a reading chart this year because we want to know the total time you read through the summer. Keep track of your time however you find easiest. We aren't sending a physical reading chart, but let us know if you'd like us to send a way to keep track of total minutes through the summer.

Contact your reader advisor, Ginny, to let her know you are participating. To be eligible for the drawing at the end, let us know how many total minutes you read from June through August.

Senior High students can also participate in the Adult Summer Reading Challenges.

To receive a cartridge of some mainly dinosaur-focused juvenile and youth books to you or your student, contact Ginny at 1-800-423-6665, or download them from BARD.

• A dinosaur named Ruth: how Ruth Mason discovered fossils in her own backyard by Julia Lyon, DBC28566
• A Dinosaur Named Sue: The Story of the Colossal Fossil: The World's Most Complete T. Rex by Patricia Relf, DB052351
• When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach, DBS004595
• All the way to the top: how one girl's fight for Americans with disabilities changed everything by Annette Bay Pimentel, DB104007
• Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House Book #1) by Mary Pope Osborne, DB052354
• The Dinosaur Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner, DBC17143
• Jack Horner: Living with Dinosaurs by Don Lessem, DB039834
• Stolen Bones, a novel by Joan Davenport Carris, DB040427
• Dinosaur Time by Peggy Parish, DB009611
• The Dinosaur World by Edwin Harris Colbert, DB012185
• Tyrannosaurus Rex by Millicent Ellis Selsam, DB014735
• The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth, DB030417
• Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier, DB120848
• Dinosaurs and other prehistoric life by Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, DB134674
• World at War, 1944 (Magic Tree House Super Edition Book #1) by Mary Pope Osborne, DB088254