Students: Join the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

Scholastic, publisher of the U.S. versions of the Harry Potter books, hosts an annual Summer Reading Challenge  as a way to encourage students to keep reading over the summer break.  Students who read when school is not in session are much more likely to retain learning—not that Harry Potter fans need an excuse to read more.

In honour of the 20th anniversary of the U.S. publication of the Harry Potter books, the theme for this year’s challenge is “A Magical Summer of Reading”.  The Challenge website has a Harry Potter theme, and features illustrations by Jim Kay.

To participate, you must live in the U.S. and be registered by an educator (teacher, librarian, community leader), who will give you a username and password that you can use to login to scholastic.com/summer.  Once you start logging your summer reading minutes, you can complete weekly reading challenges to earn digital rewards.  A parent cannot register you but the website does provide lots of free resources for families.

Ask an educator you know to create an account and get started today.  The challenge runs from May 7 — September 7, 2018.  On September 26, Scholastic will announce the schools, libraries, and communities with the most reading minutes and award prizes.  There is also a sweepstakes for educators, with Harry Potter books, temporary tattoos, posters, and bookmarks going to the five winners.

What books are you planning to read over the summer?  What books do you think other Harry Potter fans might enjoy?  Tell us in the comments. Over one million minutes have already been logged!

Kids have already logged more than 1 MILLION minutes in the Scholastic #SummerReading Challenge! ☀️📚👏🏼 Have your children been minute logging too? Let’s keep them going! https://t.co/Ka6OF5PlTK pic.twitter.com/uJUXfcRQUN

— Scholastic (@Scholastic) May 9, 2018