That’s a wrap on one very busy summer of reading! This year, children and families across the Okanagan Regional Library dove Under the Sea for Summer Reading Club 2026, filling branches with books, activities, programs, prizes, fossils, and plenty of reading along the way.
And what a summer it was. A record 9,095 children ages 5–12 participated in Summer Reading Club, an increase of 19.6% over 2025 and the highest participation the ORL has ever recorded. But the numbers only tell part of the story.
More Young Readers Than Ever
For the first time, BC Summer Reading Club also piloted an expansion formally welcoming children ages zero to five. At the ORL, 2,088 younger children participated, giving families the opportunity to include little siblings and begin building a Summer Reading Club tradition from an even earlier age. Feedback from families was enthusiastic, including parents who appreciated being able to involve all their children in the experience together.
Add them to our traditional SRC participants, and more than 11,000 children took part in Summer Reading Club activities across the ORL this year. That’s a lot of summer reading!
695 Programs and More Than 32,000 Visits
Of course, Summer Reading Club isn’t only about books. ORL staff offered 695 online and in-person programs throughout the summer, welcoming 32,719 program visits. Attendance increased 8.6% compared with 2025.
Branches offered their communities creative activities, performances, STEAM learning, crafts, games, and plenty of opportunities for children to discover something new.
Young readers could also participate in special online learning experiences from Ocean Wise, helping bring system-wide programming to families throughout the ORL service area.
The Fossil Guy Goes on Tour
One of this summer’s biggest adventures travelled all the way back to the ancient oceans. With generous funding from the Friends of the Library, Bob O’Donnell, “The Fossil Guy,” visited ORL communities for 28 presentations featuring real marine fossils, including trilobites, ammonites, and prehistoric sea life.
And everyone who attended went home with something considerably older than their library card: a fossilized shark tooth.
Proof in the Pudding
We also wanted to know what families thought about their Summer Reading Club experience.
In our annual participant survey, 91% of respondents agreed that their child learned something new, while 88% said their child enjoyed reading more. Another 79% reported reading more often. Summer Reading Club also brought families into their libraries more often. 79% of survey respondents said they visited the library a little or a lot more because of the program.
Families told us they enjoyed everything from the variety of programs and meeting new friends to exploring different books, building regular reading habits, and sharing reading time together.
Thank You for an Amazing Summer!
A summer this big takes a lot of people.
Thank you to the children and families who read, visited, participated, explored, and helped make Summer Reading Club such a lively part of the season. Thank you as well to ORL staff across our branches for the creativity, planning, promotion, and hard work that brought hundreds of programs to communities throughout the region.
Youth Services would also like to thank the ORL Board, Friends of the Library, Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, and CUPE BC for their financial support of Summer Reading Club.
And while Under the Sea has officially come to an end, we’re already looking ahead.
Preparations for Summer Reading Club 2027 have begun, and next year’s theme is Enchanted Tales. See you next summer!
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