Pierce County residents of all ages can improve their reading skills, earn prizes and have fun by participating in summer reading programs at the Bonney Lake, Buckley and Sumner libraries.

The program runs June 24 through Sept. 3 and is offered at al branches of the Pierce County Library System.

“Keeping students reading during the summer is critical to keeping them on the path to school success and graduation,” said Georgia Lomax, executive director for the Library System. “Studies show that children need opportunities to continue thinking and learning to avoid summer learning slide.”

For the first time, the library system is kicking off Summer Reading with a Read-a-Thon in 18 of its full service libraries, including Bonney Lake, Buckley and Sumner. The event takes place from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 24. During the Read-a-Thon, adults and children may read, enjoy a story time, act in a readers’ theater and have fun with other activities in their library.

Pierce County Library’s Summer Reading involves tens of thousands of people. This year’s theme, “Build a Better World,” offers free events for people of all ages to improve their community and beyond.

For children, events include dancing in a beehive; taking flight with parachutes, gliders and stomp rockets; building like an engineer; and meeting zoo animals. Reading rewards include free pizza from Round Table Pizza, free admission to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park and tickets to a Tacoma Rainiers game.

For teenagers, the program includes reading, online gamification programs, videos and in-community challenges. Teens will compete for badges and prizes by completing activities such as volunteering at an animal shelter and writing a post about it; reading a dancer’s biography and creating a music video; or going for a hike and posting information about what they saw. Teen rewards include gift cards to local and online retailers.

For adults, experiences include hearing from local authors, learning how to save and care for un-owned cats, finding out how to power homes with solar energy, and growing edible yards. Adult rewards include gift cards to local businesses.

Pierce County Library also takes Summer Reading on the road with books, movies and audiobooks, as well as programs and opportunities to earn prizes. The outreach is for people in adult care facilities, those who are homebound or in child care, or children in low-income neighborhoods.

During Summer Reading, the Library System encourages people to bring non-perishable food items to any Pierce County library to help those in need.