The idea started with Val Babson, Title One Coordinator for Gloucester Public schools. Val had seen a "Read Around the World" program presented at an educators' workshop, and was sure the idea would work in Gloucester. She met with city elementary school principals, who agreed, and gave her funding to have 2,000 passports printed and distributed to Gloucester children. Along with the passports, Sawyer Free Library children's librarians prepared summer reading lists and library program schedules, which were sent home in backpacks with the passports and an explanatory flyer.

The plan is to have children from kindergarten through grade 5 "read around the world" this summer. Each of the six grades will compete, with librarians charting mileage on a large world map. The miles are calculated by recording the number of pages kids read, or have read to them, and turning those pages into miles. The suggested summer reading lists include plenty of non-fiction author choices, as we hope kids will want to learn more about world destinations as their reading is tracked across the map. We have added related book displays and crafts, also.

So far, the response has been great. Kids stamp passports with traveling theme stamps each time they return books, and miles are recorded by librarians. We're using the "Going Places @ your library®" reading logs for kids to enter titles and page counts, or to draw pictures about the stories they've heard. The summer will culminate in a family concert and ice cream party celebration at the library.