Reading Olympics

Inspiring Kids to Become Lifelong Readers

The Reading Olympics program is designed to encourage children to read more by helping them discover the joy and excitement of reading and talking about books. Using a team format, students get to share with their friends the challenge of growing the quantity of books they read as well as increasing their exposure to a variety of writing styles and topics. 

Teams of 8-16 students, over several months, will read books from a prepared list.  The book lists include 25 titles, created to be appropriate to both the team’s age and reading levels, and are updated annually by a multi-county group of teachers and librarians.  The students will meet regularly to share and discuss their interpretations and comprehension of what they have read.

A Celebration of Reading

The Reading Olympics program culminates in a special evening celebration where all the teams are invited to attend and participate. Teams get to participate in questions about what they’ve read, and all participants receive a ribbon.

Teachers and librarians lead teams in their own school buildings with a great deal of flexibility as to how they run their program locally, but all with the same objective in mind—to get kids reading! This final celebration relies on more than 700 volunteers collaborating and working together to help honor the achievements and efforts of these student readers.