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Building on the success of Indy Public Library's summer reading program

The program's goal is to help kids succeed at school when the summer is over.

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Public Library is celebrating a successful summer reading program this year. 

More than 20,000 students participated. Together they read for more than 16 million minutes over the summer. That's the equivalent of more than 28 years.

The goal is to help kids succeed at school when the summer is over.

"Our summer reading program is based on how many minutes kids read during the summer," says Devery North, the library's school-aged & family programming specialist. "This is all based on lots of different studies that show that kids get a lot out of reading 20 minutes every day. Not only does it help them read more, it helps them in school to retain information during the school year and just be better students in general."

The library also partnered with the Indianapolis Colts to give more than 5,000 books to children in foster care.

RELATED: Colts player spends time with kids at library to share the joy of reading

"t's really exciting that kids read this summer and spend so much time reading, but it's also really wonderful that those same kids have given back to other children in the community to help them read as well," North said.

Now that the program is done, parents may be wondering how to keep their kids reading.

"If your kids takes a nosedive during the school year and isn't reading, that's okay," says North. "They are reading a lot at school.

But if you want them to keep reading outside of school she says "20 minutes is really that it takes. You can schedule that into your family time - everybody sits down and reads for 20 minutes. Or you encourage everybody to have quiet time to read something on their own. Or read a book together, that's wonderful too. Audiobooks are also a great thing as well. Audiobooks are just as important as you sitting and reading a book or two."

If you are looking for programs to continue encouraging your child to read, the Indianapolis Public Library has two that are also one running: 1000 Books Before Kindergarten encourages families to read 1000 books to children before they reach Kindergarten. 100 Books Before Graduation encourages high schoolers to read 100 books before the end of their senior year.

RELATED: Indianapolis Public Library engraves names of celebrated Black authors on its walls

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