By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(April 9, 2026) Local kids will have the opportunity this summer to read their way to prizes and fun through the Worcester County Library’s annual reading challenge to promote early childhood literacy.

The Worcester County Library system is preparing to host its annual summer reading challenge, with preregistration opening on May 22.

The program’s mission is to inspire kids to log the minutes they spend reading books and novels. Activities, performances, and the potential for prizes will accompany the time children are engaged in their stories.

According to System Marketing Coordinator Lexi Orf, the theme for this year’s reading challenge is dinosaurs. Officially, library staff have labeled this summer’s initiative as “Unearth a Story.”

All of the Worcester County libraries are participating in the project. The county’s branches include Pocomoke, Snow Hill, Berlin, Ocean City, and Ocean Pines.

How it works is that participants can log the books they read on the library’s online challenge platform, Beanstack, or use a hard gameboard, which can be downloaded from the system’s website or picked up at any of the five locations.

Hands-on activities related to dinosaurs will be denoted on the game board and in Beanstack and can also be completed in conjunction with the primary goal of the challenge: to read books. Logged stories and tasks allow the children to earn virtual badges.

A challenge T-shirt will be given to those who complete three main activity badges, and every badge secured also earns kids an entry into the grand prize drawing.

Orf said that the prizes are divided into three age groups: 5 and under, 6 to 11, and 12 to 18. Grand prizes available are as follows: for the under-5 category, kids can win a giant dinosaur stuffed animal and a $25 Amazon gift card; for 6 to 12, a hatching dinosaur and a $25 gift card will be up for grabs; and for 12 to 18, the grand raffle item is an HD Amazon Fire Tablet.

“All the activities you do give you points, and those points give you more entries for the grand prize,” Orf said.

The library system’s community partners funded the awards. These are Candy Kitchen, Fika Coffee Roasting, Jolly Roger, McDonald’s, The Christmas Sweet, Wendy’s, and the Worcester County Library Foundation.

The challenge will run from June 1 to Aug. 23. The success of the program is measured by the total number of minutes read by all participants combined throughout the summer. This year’s goal is 510,000 community minutes spent with a story.

The initiative’s mission was 500,000 minutes last year, Orf said. Participants nearly hit that, with a total of 496,000 minutes read.

The summer reading program is interactive. As such, each week of the challenge will include a performer. The acts will travel between the branches.

“Everyone gets a performer,” Orf said. “It’s going to be the same one each week, but they’re just going to be traveling.”

Some highlights include Adventures in Rhythm with Steve Cyphers, the Dino-Sized Magical Circus with Circus Greg, Diggers Digger’s Dino Show with the Story Ship, Dino Academy by Brightstar Theatre, and Mobile Zoo Crew by Coastal Winds.

Kick-off performances are set for June 23 to June 25 at the start of the challenge. To conclude the program, the libraries will host wrap-up celebrations from Aug. 18 to Aug. 20.

While preregistration starts on May 22, regular registration will begin on June 1, the first day of the challenge. Orf pointed out that June 1 is coincidentally National Dinosaur Day.

In addition to the kids’ program, adults can also participate in the summer literacy challenge. Those over 18 can earn badges to win a Visa gift card by logging reading minutes, writing reviews, and attending library programs. Orf said the initiative’s goal is to foster a literate and close-knit community.

“You can read books and learn something new, and you can come into a program, meet other people, make friends, and have that sense of community,” she said. “…Worcester County Library is about more than just books; we’re all about encouraging a love of reading, connecting our community, and inspiring lifelong learning.”