Wilton Library Summer Reading Program Goes Online

The “best of times” begins Friday at the Wilton Library as registration opens for the 2013 summer reading program.

The theme of the program is “pages through the ages,” encouraging kids to learn about the decades from the 1950s through the 2000s.

"We thought it would be fun and different from what we've done in the past," Andrea Falkner, head of the children's library, said. "The way we're doing the program this year is each week is a slightly different theme."

The reading program will be using Evanced, a log that allows participants to track their reading on the Internet to become eligible for prizes at certain points in their reading.

Falkner said the library staff is hoping that the new log leads to more participation and more active logging.

"We wanted to switch to an online program because it's more easily accesible to everyone because we have a large population of people who vacation away from town," Falkner said. "We found that people were forgetting what books they had and it was very limited as far as the number of people who could participate ... (Now) you could technically be on the beach and use your smartphone to log the book you just finished."

There will also be other events held during the program, which lasts until August 16, including:

1. Drop-in crafts on Mondays all day long for all ages, based on that week’s decade theme.
2. Drop-in story time on Tuesdays at various times depending on the age group, from infants up to 7-year-olds.
3. Wonderful Wednesdays with different events every week, ranging from the Discovery Museum showing how astronauts live and work in space to the Beardsley Zoo bringing in live animals to a meet and greet with Disney princesses. Activities vary from having specific age restrictions to being open for all ages. Times vary but are generally 3-4 p.m.
4. Movie theater Thursdays with Disney Classic movies at 10:15 a.m. and feature movies at 2 p.m. for older children.
5. Dancing through the Ages events on Fridays at 3 p.m., themed according to that week’s decade. The classes will be taught by a Wilton Dance Studio teacher, Falkner said.

On July 6, there will be a sock hop held from 6-8 p.m. for grades kindergarten and up to kick off the program. There will be trivia, an Elvis impersonator and hula-hoop contests held.

"We're really, really excited about the program this year because in addition to the reading portion of the program ... we have something going on for the kids every day of the week, Monday through Friday," Falkner said.

Wilton Library is located at 137 Old Ridgefield Rd. For more information, visit Wilton Library’s website.