Intergenerational

NCLS Book Bucks Reading Challenge

Oct 6, 2025

$1-50

Byline

Lace Keaton & Meredith Carmack, Library Director/Patron Services Coordinator, Newton County Library System, Covington, Ga.

To encourage financial literacy in the community, participants recorded what they read on their personal Newton County Library System (NCLS) Book Bucks Log and earned one "book buck" per title. For every five books read, they could redeem their "book bucks" for books and small prizes from the NCLS Book Bucks Store.

Advanced Planning

During 2025, NCLS participated in the Thinking Money for Kids Program Kit sponsored by ALA and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

The goal of this reading challenge was to continue to foster financial literacy alongside the Thinking Money for Kids program and to incentivize reading participation by offering a way to earn appealing prizes during the summer months. Planning began two months before the May 1 start date and involved the NCLS programming team, front-line staff, library administration and a partnership with the local school system, which donated ALL the book prizes.

The unexpected challenge was that the NCLS Book Bucks program was so popular that we ran out of prize options sooner than expected, especially for ages five and under.

Marketing

Marketing was through digital slides on the library website, Facebook page and library monitors throughout the branches. Printed flyers were available in the library branches and at local outreach events. The NCLS Book Bucks log was available in print and as a download from our library website. Both formats were very successful, especially for a first time event.

Budgeting

Our costs were only for printed materials. Three reams of paper were $20.00.

Prizes were new books donated by the local school system and various small prizes we had leftover from previous library events. Cost-cutting suggestions would be to stock your "Books Bucks Store "with whatever prizes you have on hand and to reach out to local organizations for possible donations.

Day-of-event Activity

This was an ongoing, self-directed program from May 1 to July 31, 2025, which also coincided with our annual Summer Reading Program.

Patrons could sign up for BOTH Summer Reading and Book Bucks at the same time.

No additional staff time was needed. The only challenge was keeping up with the high demand.

Program Execution

To our surprise, this pilot program was very successful! Kids learned the importance of how to save, record and keep up with their Book Bucks. We had a total of 350 participants, 824 book prizes distributed and a total of $4,120 Book Bucks earned/spent. The biggest question we had was, "When will you do this again?!"