Library announces summer reading winners

The Maryville Public library recently recognized local young people who earned reading awards over the summer.

The annual summer reading program served 382 children between May 29 and July 31, when more than 10,000 children's and young adult books were checked out.

"This is the first year, the kids earned rewards based on minutes spent reading instead of the number of books," said library Director Stephanie Patterson. "The result was that the kids we saw were tackling longer books. They were pushing their own reading skills, which was great."

Many of the youngsters accepted the "Librarian's Classics Challenge," earning an extra "dream dollar" if they read at least three books from a list of abridged and original classics.

"I was pleased with the kids' response to this," Patterson said. "Some of them really took to the classics list and finished more than three over the summer."

Some of the more popular titles on the classics list include "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London and "Pollyanna" by Eleanor Porter.

The top three summer readers, based on number of hours spent reading, won medals and free ice cream courtesy of My Favorite Muffin.

Top finishers in the independent readers category were:

1st place, Jeshua Blaine, 122 hours; 2nd place, Alex Myers, 121.25 hours; 3rd place, Kenzie Martin, 76 hours; 4th place, Vanessa Myers, 53 hours; 5th place, Gunnar Grispino, 48 hours; 6th place, Emma Lager, 46.25 hours; 7th place, Madilyn Pritzel, 46 hours; 8th place, Nathalie Lager, 39.75 hours; 9th place, Andrea Riley, 35.5 hours; 10th place, Abigail Seipel, 31 hours; 11th place, Trevin Melton, 22 hours; 12th place, Ashley Riley, 21.5 hours; 13th place, Kyle Melton, 21.25 hours; 14th place, Jordan Jenkins, 20.75 hours.

In the pre-readers category, based on the number of hours a parent spent reading to the child, certificates were awarded to the top three parents, along with a free jumbo muffin from My Favorite Muffin.

Top finishers were:

1st place, Elizabeth and Travis Dimmitt, with daughter Mattie, 61 hours; 2nd place, Melissa Hull, with daughter Stella, 34 hours; 3rd place, Lori Lager with sons Andy and Gabe, 31 hours.