Gearing up for Summer Reading!

Message from Katherine Applegate, 2025 Summer Reading Champion to Member Libraries

I love librarians. I love their good hearts. I love their sly wit. (Librarians always have a subversive sense of humor.) I love the way they embrace the right to read and are ready to fight the good fight, no matter the odds.

But I especially love the way librarians relish a challenge. No book request is too obscure!

No inquiry too complex! Need an illustrated non-fiction book about naked mole-rats? Your librarians are on the case. Want a big, fat chapter book about dragon-training? They’ve got you covered. Looking for a book of riddles that will stump your Uncle Fred? They’re on it.

For these reasons and so many more, librarians are my heroes. That’s why it’s a huge honor for me to have been named the 2025 Summer Reading Champion by the Collaborative Summer Library Program.

(I like to think it makes me an honorary librarian, at least from June to August.)

There’s something especially magical about libraries during the summer. You can browse the shelves for hours. You can surprise yourself with stories you might not have had the time or opportunity to read during the school year. You can set a book aside if it’s not your cup of tea. Or you can read a book ten times in a row if it spoke to you in a special way. (I call those “best friend books.”)

This summer, I hope we can enjoy the magic of libraries together. I can’t wait to tell you more about the Color Our World creativity challenge that will be part of the fun. And we have lots more planned. You don’t want to miss out!

Most of all, I’m looking forward to hearing about the stories you discover with the help of those brilliant magicians—otherwise known as “librarians”—at your local library.

They’re the best. Tell them I said thanks.

To watch her message, visit: https://www.cslpreads.org/nationalsummerreadingchampion/