For over 80 years, the Summer Reading Club has been providing the children and teens of Los Angeles with free enrichment opportunities to close the gap of the “summer slump” during their school break. Through fun themes, activities, workshops, performances, and free lunches the Summer Reading Club fosters a love for reading and libraries for tens of thousands of students every year.

This year’s program will run from June 13 to August 6 across all 73 branches. In alignment with the California Library Association and Illinois Reading Enrichment and Development (iREAD), the theme for 2016 Summer Reading is “Sports and Games: Read for the Win!” Librarians will host events activities featuring baseball, soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, football, the Olympics, a collaboration with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, and more to motivate “active” participation from students. Learn more at lapl.org/summer-reading, or visit any branch beginning June 13 to pick up a game board to get started.

Thanks to a generous gift from the Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund, the Summer Reading Club will thrive for years to come. Lennie and Bernie Greenberg, longtime cultural leaders and patrons supporting such great local institutions like the L.A. Phil, L.A. Opera, and MOCA have established an endowment at the Library Foundation, the Future Leaders Fund, which will bring noted children’s and young adult authors to the Los Angeles Public Library branches for the Summer Reading Clubs. This fund will provide a rare and exciting opportunity for young people to meet, hear from, and interact with noted, published authors.

As a trusted destination for fun, learning, and community, the Los Angeles Public Library, with its close relationships to local and national authors, is perfectly positioned to enhance its hugely successful Summer Reading Club. In a city where too many students are reading and writing below grade-level proficiency, the program helps young people increase their reading achievement, start the school year ready to learn, become more confident in the classroom, and achieve greater success in school.