Our Lucha Libros program has ended for the 2017-2018 school year! After answering questions about their last book for the year kids got to learn their scores and get tickets, as well as certificates commemorating their participation in this program. We gave extra tickets to the kids who placed in 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st place and the 1st place winners were awarded Lucha Libros Champion Belts!

The placing was as follows for 2nd grade:

5th place: Nico M.
4th place: Kai C.
3rd place: Sophia T. and Max C.
2nd place: Abby V.
Lucha Libros Champion: Zach V.

A total of 33 2nd graders participated in the program this year, reading a different book each month and participating in at least one Lucha Libros battle where they had to answer questions about the book they read in order to earn prizes. They did an awesome job and were great about discussing the books they read. Here is a video showing our discussion, where I asked the kids what they thought the worst part of Nate’s day was in the book Big Nate In a Class By Himself by Lincoln Peirce:

Here is the placing for 3rd grade:

5th place: Austin E.
4th place: Syaan M.
3rd place: Mattie K.
2nd place: Sophie S. and Zoe L.
Lucha Libros Champion: Mazzy W.

A total of 24 3rd graders participated in at least one Lucha Libros battle this year. They also did a great job reading, remembering and discussing the books all year long, and I got a lot of feedback from parents that they saw their kids reading a lot more and enjoying reading!

After all the kids got their tickets and certificates, we had special prizes we gave away by holding an auction. They were things like a basketball, soccer ball, a light-up skipping ball, cake pop maker, and wubble balls. Kids had to bid on the prizes using the tickets they had left over from this or other battles.

They were also able to use up their tickets at the prize table where we cut the “prices” of each prize in half.

Parents took a survey about their thoughts on the program and what impact it had on their child’s reading skills as well as their family’s reading habits. 72% of families reported reading at least some of the books with their kids. Parents also shared what skills or attitudes had developed in their kids over the course of the year, and over 70% of families reported that the program helped their children develop stronger skills for “remembering details from a text.” When asked what they liked about the program, many people told us that they liked the book selection, the prizes, and just the general motivation for kids to read something outside of what they might normally choose because the incentive (the prizes) and the camaraderie (reading the same thing as dozens of other kids) kept them going.

I’m grateful to every family that chose to make this program their reading goal for 2017-2018, and I am confident all of our Luchadores are going to keep on growing as readers! We’ll start the program again for 2nd and 3rd graders in September 2018. Until then, don’t forget to keep coming to the library for prizes and special reading incentives as our Summer Reading Challenge begins this Saturday, June 2nd! Starting that day, you can come to the library and pick up a reading log and a free book, and keep track of every day that you read so that you can earn additional prizes!