In 2026, BC Summer Reading Club will be piloting an age expansion to formally include children aged zero to five. This will be the first year of a multi-year exploration into how to best include families with young children, especially those with younger siblings. This pilot came about for a number of reasons, such as offering consistency and access throughout the province. Most significantly, through our investigation into current practices and research into the impacts of literacy programming, we recognized the unique opportunity BC Summer Reading Club has to bridge multiple age ranges, fostering strong connections between families and libraries and creating a family tradition that can last throughout an entire young childhood.
Please check back here throughout the year for updates and reporting on the initiative.
FAQ
Ahhh!! Why are you doing this? There are a number of reasons. First is consistency. While each library system offers their own unique Summer Reading Club experience, BC SRC materials are funded through the province and it’s important that children across BC have the same access. Second, we’ve continuously heard from parents that having a broader age range is wanted. It helps with siblings and the support of keen young readers.
Can’t we just make everyone do school-aged? We based this decision partly on what libraries were already doing. With such a large majority of library systems serving this age range, we decided to support a practice that had evolved organically.
Do we have to do toddler programming now? No! This pilot is just about reading records and interactions with patrons. You know your library and community best. Continue doing what has worked for you and focus your capacity where you think it is most needed. All we are hoping to do with this expansion is eliminate the ‘no’ at the desk when littler kids ask for a reading record and build a program that families can participate in throughout childhood.
Can we do toddler programming now? Yes! If you’ve been itching to include this age range, go for it! Programming and outreach are at the discretion of each individual library system. There will also be program templates in the 2026 manual for babies and toddlers.
What about tweens? This might make the program less appealing and we already struggle with older kids. We acknowledge that this could have an impact. Tweens are tricky. We’re not changing anything about the Reading Record design to accommodate younger participants, so the program will look and feel the same as it did in previous years. Instead, we’re going to develop parental supports to help with goal setting for kids of all ages. Going forward, we’re going to feature tweens-specific challenges on the bcsrc website and social media for 2026. As well, there are fantastic programming outlines for tweens in our manual.
What about teens? Why not expand in that direction? This pilot expansion is meant to align the formal program structure with existing practice. We’re essentially catching up to what libraries are already doing. Teens are a different, more complex opportunity. While we’re unable to meaningfully include this age in BC SRC 2026, a number of libraries have their own Teen summer programming. If you’re looking for ideas on how to work with Teens, reach out to me at [email protected] and I can connect you with library systems that are doing incredible work.
Can we opt out of this change? Short answer, no. It is important that children across the province have similar access to program materials. If you’re deeply concerned about the impact this could have on your library system, please reach out to [email protected].