The Joy of Reading

One World, Many Stories is a program sponsored by Friends of the Bellingham Public Library and other community partners to encourage kids to read. Kids between the ages of 5 and 15 earn these signs and other awards by reading (or listening) for 15 hours during the summer. If the number of signs in our neighborhood is any indication, it's very successful.

I never needed any incentive to read when I was young (or now) -- I had my nose in a book at every opportunity -- but there weren't any of today's competing distractions then. We didn't even have television.