Middle School Summer Reading Cube Celebration

On Thursday, September 18, 42 Middle School students were invited to a special celebration during break in the Gallery. What were they celebrating? Successful completion of the Summer Reading Book Cube Challenge!

Tregaron Research and Media Specialist Lauren Olson explains: "The Summer Reading Book Cube is our incentive to encourage free reading alongside each department's summer selection. It functions kind of like bingo, where students pick four boxes on the grid (instead of five for bingo), across, down, or diagonally. Each of the cubes has a different type of book in it, and they can choose any four.

All Middle School students are invited to participate in the Book Cube Challenge. At the beginning of the school year, students who opted in to the challenge turn in the Cube with the titles of all the books they read over the summer. We try to make the cube categories broad enough so that whatever book the student chooses, it will work for one of the boxes. The challenge is then to be a reading risk taker and find a book that both sounds good and fits an adjacent, potentially less familiar, category."

Although there are different versions of the cube each summer, "a book recommended to you" and "a book you consider a classic" are consistent. "I think it's a low-stakes opportunity for teens and tweens to invite their adults into conversation about books." Olson adds that students' responses often offer a glimpse into each Middle Schooler's reading culture. One parent recommended one of his personal favorites, Dune, to his Grade 8 child. "Even though [the student] is notoriously skeptical about science fiction, it was a hit!" Another student listed Knuffle Bunny as a "classic" and shared that they used to read it at bedtime when they were little. 

"This event is a celebration of the readers in our community and a peek into what our students choose to read on their own." 

Congratulations to all of our Middle School readers! Keep it up!