Volume 3, Number 1, January-February 2007

Partnerships

Stellar Year for TD Summer Reading Club

2006 TD Summer Reading Club Heroes Source

According to statistics released recently by Library and Archives Canada, the TD Summer Reading Club 2006 enjoyed its most successful year ever. Decima Research collected the data for the National Report of 2006 Program Statistics, which were compiled from the statistics of 2,000 library branches in 11 out of the 13 provinces and territories. The program is offered free to children ages 12 and under every summer in participating Canadian public libraries.

Registration for the TD Summer Reading Club 2006 program was up 10 percent from the previous year. Library staff organized 5,000 more activities with nearly 400,000 children taking part. Fifty-five percent of the participants were girls and 45 percent were boys. The most common testimonial from parents and teachers about the program was that children improved their reading habits significantly. On average, each registered club member read eight books, bringing the total number of books read to almost two million!

A joint initiative between TD Bank Financial Group, Library and Archives Canada and the Toronto Public Library, the TD Summer Reading Club is an award-winning program that offers children and their families a fun approach to reading during the summer months. In partnership with Canadian libraries, the program is an innovative way to raise literacy levels in Canada.

Theme-based reading kits, which include a poster, stickers and an activity booklet, are given to participants as an incentive to read. The goals of the program are to encourage Canadian children to read for pleasure, to help maintain and improve their reading skills during the summer and to encourage them to be lifelong readers and library patrons.

According to a literature review prepared for Library and Archives Canada on the impact of summer reading clubs, reading books in the summer is associated not only with enhanced reading proficiency, but also with improved social and academic performance.

Results from the National Report of 2006 Program Statistics were released on the eve of Family Literacy Day, a celebration of the joy and importance of reading. For more information on the Report and on the TD Summer Reading Club, visit www.td-club-td.ca/index-e.html.

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