It is a thrill to see the 5th year of The Children’s Reading Foundation’s Summer Reading Campaign in full swing. The CRF’s Summer Reading campaign runs from the beginning of June through the end of July, just in time for the August First Day of School promotions. The content is shared across social media channels and via the email newsletter that is crafted every month.

The first year of Summer Reading was a building year. We were still trying to get the CRF Resource Hub up and running but worked tirelessly to create 2 Summer Reading Kits for children 0-5 & 6+ (both are available in English and Spanish).

In year 2, we expanded on the Summer Reading content to create new printables, outside of the existing Summer Reading Kits, that children and their families can use together, like the Welcome to the Library Scavenger Hunt. We also made some visual changes to the campaign including changing the background color of the campaign from yellow to green for both email and social media.

In year 3, the Resource Hub was established as a place for parents, caregivers, teachers, and librarians to visit to find activities to keep children engaged and learning all summer long. Additionally, we mined the Resource Hub to find book themed printables that could support the Summer Reading promo and included them on the Summer Reading landing page and used the content in the email and social media content we shared. We also offered children the opportunity to read and complete the Summer Reading Tracker and email it to the CRF in order to receive several free books. Not only is it a delightful way to see children reading but it allows the CRF to directly engage with their audience.

In year 4, we created the READ UP! Stop the Summer Slide Digital Bundles. These curated bundles are a collection of several different themes on the Resource Hub, to make it easy for parents, teachers, librarians, and caregivers to prevent learning loss over the summer by stopping the summer slide. We named the bundles fun and delightful names like: the Rise & Shine Bundle (SEL), the Creative Kid Bundle (art, music, and color), the Story Play Bundle (stories, imagination, and play), and the ABC &123 Bundle (tracing letter, numbers, and learning foundational writing skills. Each bundle comes with a cover sheet for instructions of use and a 20 Books Reading list, promoting the moto of The Children’s Reading Foundation: Read Together 20 Minutes Every Day.

Now in year 5, we have gone back to the beginning, reusing content and color themes from previous years. The content may be older, but the CRF is constantly acquiring new consumers and customers, so the content feels fresh to them. We continue to feature 20 books to read module, about what else—summer! And we still do our Summer Reading Book Giveaway.

This Summer Reading campaign, year-over-year, has outperformed every other monthly CRF campaign, with thousands of downloads for the FREE, sharable content offered by The Children’s Reading Foundation.