Oct. 8, 2025 – At Little Cupcakes Child Care, Assistant Teacher Alyssa Henry just had to pull out a stack of books for the room of one-year-olds to gather around, excited to hear a story.
The eight toddlers in the room were among the 385 kids who completed the library’s Mega Readers program over the summer.
The program was a new addition to the Summer Reading Challenge this year. It invited daycares, preschools, and summer learning sites across Cedar Rapids to track their reading together.
The library dropped off Mega Readers game boards to each class, and students marked off a space on the board for every 15 minutes they read. When the class reached 600 minutes, the library delivered a free book for each student and a Mega Readers certificate for the classroom.
“Mega Readers was created to give schools and daycares a way to easily participate in the Summer Reading Challenge as a group, and to encourage them to incorporate regular reading time into their summer programs,” Library Programming Manager Kevin Delecki said. “One of the library’s goals is increasing literacy, and we want to help teachers with tools to motivate their students and to make reading fun.”
At Little Cupcakes, Henry said her classroom increased the number of times they were reading to the children each day, from once a day to two or three times a day.
“All the kids loved reading the books. We found the kids enjoy it a lot more than just doing activities,” she said. “A lot of them had a lot more attention on us, and it really made the day go a lot smoother.”
At St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Director of Early Childhood Education Julie Hanlin said their five summer daycare classrooms participated, with 55 kids ranging from infants to 10-year-olds.
“It’s been super fun. I love that the chart got the kids excited. A bright, colorful chart has been fun for them to engage with,” she said.
She also said participating led them to increase the frequency of reading in each classroom, and that the older kids were more motivated to read by themselves during free time. Their teachers took them down to the church’s library to pick out books, something they hadn’t done before.
“It energized them,” she said. “And it reminded them how fun reading is, and that it’s not just something to do during the school year.”
Older children benefited from the program, too, such as the middle school students – called scholars – at Tanager’s Freedom Schools. The scholars met for six weeks throughout the summer at Roosevelt Creative Corridor Business Academy, with reading a key part of each day. Tanager School Based Therapist Paula Cox said their scholars improved an average of almost two grade levels in reading skills over the summer.
Jordan Pinckney is Tanager’s Freedom Schools Project Director. He said when he heard about the Mega Readers program, he immediately knew he wanted his scholars involved.
“I was like, we are going to compete with the rest of the city,” he said. “When you eat an elephant, you start with a single bite. Six hundred minutes sounds like a lot, but when you’re tracking it each day, you realize it’s possible.”
One seventh grade girl participating in the program said she liked reading books that told stories of Black history she might not learn in a traditional classroom. She said the Mega Readers program helped her realize just how much she was accomplishing.
“Tracking the reading every day, I really got to see my efforts and everything I put into it. I didn’t know it was that much,” she said.
Another scholar agreed.
“It was a reflection of how much work you did. So when I looked at it, I would feel honored,” she said.
Servant Leader Intern Abby Bartz, who helped lead the program, said she saw the impact over the summer.
“I thought the chart was a good visual, and it gave them a sense of accomplishment,” she said. “It gave them something to work toward.”
Mega Readers Stats:
723 children registered, in 38 classrooms, at 13 locations, including schools, preschools, and daycares
385 children completed the program, in 26 classrooms, at 10 locations
231,000 minutes of reading logged by Mega Readers
FY 2025 Annual Report
This story is from the library's FY 2025 Annual Report.