Great River Regional Library (GRRL) kicked off its annual Summer Reading Challenge on Monday, June 8th, and continues through Saturday, August 8th. Registration began on June 8th in the Beanstack app, on griver.beanstack.org, or at your local library during open hours. In the challenge, participants track their reading in the Beanstack app or on paper slips, which they return to their library to be eligible for prize drawings. In addition, each branch offers a unique assortment of prizes!<\/p>\n
In 2025, across 32 branch locations, we had a record-breaking 14,041 babies, children, and teens participate! We anticipate another exciting summer with families in our communities. This year\u2019s theme, \u201cPlant a Seed, Read,\u201d shares both food and stories that connect us to our family, culture, economy, and ecology. A library grows ideas that nourish our minds! The challenge is open to all kids ages 0 to 18 and divided by age: early learners (ages 0 to 3), kids (ages 4 to grade 6), and teens (grades 6 to 12).<\/p>\n
The mission of our reading challenge is simple: Encourage children and teens to read throughout the summer! Summer reading isn\u2019t just fun; it\u2019s extremely beneficial. Regular reading goes a long way toward combating the \u201csummer slide,\u201d a term that describes the loss of academic skills during the summer break. Students who join public library summer reading programs scored higher on reading achievement tests at the beginning of the next school year than those who did not participate \u2013 in some cases, significantly higher.<\/p>\n
This reading challenge would not be possible without our generous sponsors. We are grateful for their support, which helps us bring the joy of reading to young people in our communities. Thank you to the following for sponsoring the 2026 Summer Reading Challenge:
\n\u2022 American Legion #560
\n\u2022 Belgrade Steel Tank Co.
\n\u2022 Blattner Company
\n\u2022 Blaze Credit Union
\n\u2022 Central MN Noon Optimist Club
\n\u2022 Elevate Dance Center
\n\u2022 Evenson Decker, P.A.
\n\u2022 Fuzzy Loon Designs
\n\u2022 Garage Door Store
\n\u2022 Grey Eagle – Burtrum Lions Club
\n\u2022 Infinite Eye Care
\n\u2022 Kiwanis Club of St. Cloud
\n\u2022 Minnesota National Bank
\n\u2022 Moose Lodge #1400
\n\u2022 Schlenner Wenner & Co.
\n\u2022 St. Cloud Industrial Products Inc. (SCIPI)
\n\u2022 Sertoma Club of St. Cloud
\n\u2022 St. Cloud Friends of the Library
\n\u2022 Stearns Electric
\n\u2022 STMA Women of Today
\n\u2022 And anonymous donors<\/p>\n
Visit your local library to discover how your children can participate this summer. Check your library\u2019s hours at griver.org\/locations and find more details on the library\u2019s website at griver.org\/summer-reading-challenge.<\/p>\n
Great River Regional Library (GRRL) provides library services at 32 public libraries and one to-go system in Benton, Morrison, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd, and Wright Counties. GRRL2GO is a locker system that allows you to pick up items at the Sartell Community Center. GRRL supplies the residents of Central Minnesota with nearly 1 million books, CDs, and DVDs, 250 public computers, programming, and information services.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Great River Regional Library (GRRL) kicked off its annual Summer Reading Challenge on Monday, June 8th, and continues through Saturday, August 8th. Registration began on June 8th in the Beanstack app, on griver.beanstack.org, or at your local library during open hours. In the challenge, participants track their reading in the Beanstack app or on paper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3830,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/3830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}