Susan Stolmeier’s summer reading challenge, encouraging kids to read over the summer vacation, was an invitation to fill their virtual picnic basket with the list of books they read. The reward was a picnic under the school’s maple tree on Sept. 17, to acknowledge the more than 500 books read by 70 kids.

The kids that brought picnic baskets of reading lists when they came back to school had an outdoor picnic with hotdogs, carrots, lemonade, chips, and ice cream cones.

Stolmeier, the elementary reading specialist, said “We want to show the kids that reading is something you do for enjoyment.

“Television has been around for a long time, but now kids (as well as adults) get further distracted by computers in their free time.”

She noted that, in addition to reading themselves, children of all ages – even older kids – like to be read to, and having conversations about their reading is an easy way to spend quality family, or parent-child time.