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Color Our World Summer Reading Challenge

2025 Summer Reading

June 1–August 1

read & review books, earn prizes
Art has the power to transform, uplift, and connect us—just like reading does! This summer we invite you on a journey of reading, art, and creativity, celebrating the myriad ways in which art enriches our lives.

1. Sign up for the challenge

Visit the Henrico Library Beanstack page to sign up your whole family online. Adults with "pre-reader" children (who are not yet reading on their own) can also sign up their little ones to track their time spent reading together. See below for more about Beanstack.

Then visit your favorite Henrico library to pick up your starting prizes—a reading log, a bookmark, and a pencil—and get started on logging all your reading progress this summer!

Follow us on social media for more activities and fun as the summer goes on.

2. Log your reading and reviews

Your challenge this summer is to read for 1,000 minutes by August 1, to earn a ticket to our Grand Prize drawing.

When you do any reading at all—whether a lot or a little—track how many minutes you read in Beanstack. It adds up fast! If you read 20 minutes each day, you can finish in 50 days. If you read more per day, you can finish sooner … and if you read for more than 1,000 minutes, you can earn more tickets to win a Grand Prize.

As a bonus, if you write reviews of 5 books and submit them in Beanstack, you'll earn one more ticket for the Grand Prize drawing!

Aim for these goals:

GoalPrize
500 minutes
Midpoint Prize
1,000 minutes
Finisher Prize + Grand Prize Drawing Ticket
1,500 / 2,000 / 2,500 minutes
Additional Grand Prize Drawing Tickets
Review 5 books on Beanstack
Bonus Grand Prize Drawing Ticket

3. Collect your prizes and enter drawings

As you reach your goals, come in to the library to pick up your prizes. Midpoint and Finisher prizes will be available starting July 1:

Age GroupMidpoint PrizeFinisher Prize
Pre-Readers
FREE Book
5-Color Fun Crayon
Kids
FREE Book
Colored Pencil Set
Teens
FREE Book OR Blank Sketch Book
Clip-on Ring Light
Adults
Book Sale Voucher OR Blank Sketch Book
Collectible Coffee Mug

Grand Prizes

Be sure to have all your reading and reviews entered in Beanstack by Friday, August 1 to qualify for the Grand Prize Drawings! Winners will be announced Wednesday, August 6. The more you have read, the more chances you'll have to win one of these great prizes:

Kid & Teen Grand Prizes

Creality K1 SE
3D Printer
Apple iPad
(10.9-inch) Wi-Fi 64GB with Apple Pencil

Adult Grand Prize

Cricut Maker 3
Cricut Maker 3
Crafting Machine

Pre-reader Grand Prize

Magnetic Building Tiles
Wonder Tiles
Magnetic Building Tiles with Light Table

Branch Prizes

Branch Prize Drawings can be entered in person at any Henrico library. You can win one of these prizes:

Kid Branch Prize

Magnetic Building Tiles
Lego Classic
Vibrant Creative Brick Box

Teen Branch Prize

Cricut Maker 3
Polaroid Go
Mini Instant Film Camera

Adult Branch Prize

Magnetic Building Tiles
Michael's
$50 Gift Card

Pre-reader Branch Prize

Magnetic Building Tiles
Lego Duplo
Deluxe Brick Box

We're doing all kinds of fun things this summer! Follow us on social media or visit the information desk at your favorite Henrico library to find out what's going on.

We hope you to see you there!

Upcoming Events
Beanstack Tracker app icon

Sign up with Beanstack

Beanstack is a free website and app that Henrico Library uses to offer reading challenges like Summer Reading. Once you start an account for yourself and the other readers in your family, you can log all of your reading and reviews in one place. You can join challenges in Beanstack, and as you reach challenge goals, you'll earn prizes ranging from virtual badges to entries in our Grand Prize drawings!

Visit the Henrico Library Beanstack page or download the Beanstack Tracker app from your app store to get ready. Note that only books and reviews logged from June 1–August 1 will count toward the Summer Reading challenge.

Summer Reading prizes and events are sponsored by the Friends of Henrico County Public Library.