MEXICO — On June 10, Meroby Elementary School students celebrated their last school-wide morning meeting of the year with a special focus on how reading is fun … even in the summer.

Several families were on hand as classes walked into the gymnasium with long links of paper rings with titles of the books they’ve read this spring. After snaking around the gym a couple times, a representative from each class reported their totals to Ms. Puiia and Mrs. Bernard who would later announce that 2188 books were read.

There was a book drawing selected from the “I Caught You Reading” ticket entries. The lucky recipients of a Lynn Plourde book were Abby Peaslee and Shelton Noyes from Ms. Roy’s first grade, Kenedi Arsenault from Ms. Finlay’s third grade and Trinadi Milligan from Mrs. Sirois’ fifth grade.

Local children’s librarian Sue Marshall and library director, Luke Sorensen, from the Rumford Public Library provided a spirited, lyrical explanation of their summer reading program: Dig into Reading! Also on hand, from the Mexico Public Library, was children’s librarian Valerie Messana who urged students to participate in their summer program: Read Like a Wild Thing! Both presentations were motivating and reaffirmed the importance of reading during summer.

Summer reading is a fun way to maintain new skills and it helps prevent the dreaded “summer slide” that often occurs.