Athena Sager pictured with her personalized book at the Reinbeck Public Library after completing the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Challenge. PHOTO BY MICHELLE SIEH

REINBECK – Athena Sager recently completed her goal of reading 1,000 books before kindergarten at the Reinbeck Public Library!

Three-year-old Athena loves reading at home with her dad, mom and big sister Alexis who works at the Reinbeck library as a library page.

Athena’s favorite book – which she can read ALL by herself – is “Where’s The Unicorn?” by Ingela Arrhenius. She likes visiting the library and playing with all the stuffies, preferably the doggie and Cat in the Hat stuffies.

Another favorite activity of Athena’s when stopping by the library is riding the “escavator” up to the second floor. She chose to have her photo taken for this article by the elevator door in celebration.

Athena received the personalized book “Athena’s Magical Unicorn” after completing the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge and was excited to take it home afterwards to read with her family.

Great work, Athena!

Background

The concept is simple, the rewards are priceless…and you get prizes! Win-win! Read a book (any book) to your infant, and/or toddler (any age 0-5). The goal is to read 1,000 books (yes, you can repeat books) before your little one starts kindergarten. If you read just one book a night you will have read 365 books in a year. That is 730 books in two years and 1,095 books in three years. If you consider that most children start kindergarten at age five then you have two years to spare! Not only is this achievable, but you have the Reinbeck Public Library cheering you on and helping you along the way!

Here’s how it works:

-Check out stacks of library books. They are free! A librarian would even love to help you pick out the perfect books for any age, stage and interest.

-Story Times are every Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the library. Every book counts!

-You will want to stop in at every 100 books so we can celebrate this awesome achievement and get you excited for the next 100!

For more information on the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Challenge, stop by the Reinbeck Public Library at 501 Clark Street during library hours, or visit https://www.reinbeck.lib.ia.us/services/reading-challenges.