Level Up with Our Online Summer Reading Challenge for All Ages
Posted on May 28, 2025 at 6:00 am
Reading Challenge & Benefits
June 1–August 31
Our Online Summer Reading Challenge “Level Up at Your Library” is for everyone—adults, teens, kids, and even infants and preschoolers. The challenge includes giveaways and prizes, such as books and Velocity or Zephyr FC soccer tickets, as well as the many benefits of reading.
Adults can track their beach reads, book club reads, informational reads—all their reading! Studies have shown that when adults read regularly, it can help reduce stress, strengthen memory, and improve sleep quality.
For kids, reading during the summer helps them maintain and improve their reading skills. It can help prevent summer learning loss—also called “summer slide”—which happens when children aren’t reading during the summer break and can lose up to three months of reading progress.
“Along with the engaging activities at our libraries, the reading challenge helps ensure that kids’ reading skills remain strong and that they are ready to learn when returning to school in the fall,” shares Gwendolyn Haley, SCLD Public Services Manager.
When you take on the reading challenge, you can achieve a new reading goal, explore new activities, and expand your knowledge about your community.
Every reader can help SCLD reach its community reading goal of 1,000,000 minutes this summer by tracking reading minutes. In past summers, Spokane County readers have reached over 600,000 minutes in combined reading, so we’re confident we can crush this new goal!
Early registration is open, and you can start tracking your reading on Sunday, June 1.
Beanstack Basics
Easily keep track of your reading and the badges you earn on the Beanstack website or with the Beanstack mobile app. The mobile app has a timer, making tracking even easier.
Beanstack makes tracking easy for families too. The whole family can be added to Beanstack with one login. Start with an adult login and then add family members within that main account.
You can get personalized book recommendations from Beanstack based on your reading interests, helping you discover new titles and authors in SCLD’s collection.
Add book reviews to Beanstack to help other readers find their next read. And check out others’ reviews to find yours.
Get the Beanstack App
Earning Badges on Beanstack
All readers can earn badges by tracking reading minutes, rating and reviewing books they’ve read, and completing activities.
This summer’s “Level Up at Your Library” on Beanstack has four challenges based on age groups. The groupings are babies and pre-kindergarten (ages 0–4), kids (ages 5–12), teens (ages 13–17), and adults (ages 18+).
The reading challenges are the same for each age group. For every 60 minutes of reading (up to 10 hours), you earn a reading badge. When you read for 600 minutes or more over the summer, you win the challenge and receive a Certificate of Achievement and bragging rights.
You can also write reviews of the books you read to earn a badge.
The activity challenges are tailored by the age groups, so different ages have different activities. Activity challenges include things such as:
- Going to a new park
- Playing games with family and friends
- Trying a new craft or hobby
- Exploring a Washington State Park with a Discover Pass
- Finding a new eBook or audiobook using our digital resources
Giveaways & Prizes
Kicking off the challenge, kids and teens, ages 0–17, who register for summer reading with Beanstack can visit their library to choose a new, age-appropriate book for free, while supplies last, that they get to keep.
Registered youth, ages 5–17, who read at least 300 minutes can earn a free ticket to a Spokane Velocity FC or Spokane Zephyr FC soccer match, while supplies last.
Everyone who reads for at least 600 minutes is entered into the prize drawings. Each prize drawing is arranged by age group, with the following prizes:
- For infants, toddlers, pre-kindergartners (ages 0–4): Passes to We Play at the Spokane Valley Mall
- For kids (ages 5–12): Passes to Flying Squirrel Trampoline Park in Spokane Valley
- For teens (ages 13–17): Passes to Wonderland Family Fun Center in North Spokane
- For adults (age 18+): Gift cards for Uncle’s Games, located in Downtown Spokane and Spokane Valley Mall
All Summer Reading giveaways and prizes have been sponsored by the Library Foundation of Spokane County. The Summer Reading book giveaways were made possible by generous donations from community members to Library Giving Day 2025.
Discover how you can support the Library Foundation and its mission at supportscld.org.
Finding Great Books to Read
If you’re on the go or just hanging out at home this summer, check out our digital resources for eBooks, audiobooks, and animated digital books:
Our digital resources are available online to in-district library card holders and require internet access. Anyone visiting one of our libraries can also access most if our digital resources when using our internet computer stations or Wi-Fi (exceptions include OverDrive/Libby, hoopla, Kanopy, and LinkedIn Learning).
This summer, spend less time looking for a good book and more time reading one with our Book Butler service. Our staff pick out 3–5 books for you to try, based on the reading preferences you share. If you are looking for a cozy mystery, a gritty true crime book, a science fiction adventure, a great biography, or anything else, we will find a few for you to read.
You can also get book suggestions using our digital resources. NoveList Plus is an all-ages digital resource that offers booklists and reading recommendations. You can browse popular titles by age group or genre to find new books. Search for your favorite authors to find similar read-alike writers, or search for a specific title to learn more about it, including its genre, pace, tone, and recommended age group and to get suggestions for similar titles.
SelectReads offers lists of the library’s newest books in various genres, on popular topics, and by favorite authors. You can even create a custom newsletter with the types of books you like to read that SelectReads sends to you monthly to let you know about new books added to the library’s collection.
Tags: adults, all ages, Beanstack, books, early learners, Families, giveaways, kids, prizes, reading challenge, Summer reading, teens, tweens
