Sticker Charts and Summer Stars: Fifty Years of Reading Rituals in Luverne
Photo: scbailey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
There's a photograph in the library's back-room archives that sums up about four decades of summers in a single frame: a line of kids snaking out the front door on a June morning, bikes piled helter-skelter on the lawn, every face pointed toward the door where the year's reading logs were being handed out.
The Summer Reading Program has been a fixture of Luverne summers for longer than most current participants have been alive. And its story, told through the people who lived it, is really the story of how a whole generation or two came to love reading.
It Started With a Simple Idea
The premise has never changed much: read books over summer break, track what you finish, earn small rewards along the way. In the earliest years, that meant paper logs and hand-drawn charts taped to the circulation desk. The rewards were modest — a pencil, a bookmark, occasionally a coupon for a scoop of ice cream from a shop down Main Street.
"It wasn't the prizes," laughs a former participant who now brings her own grandchildren to sign up each June. "It was the chart. Seeing your name move up that wall. That was the whole thing."
The Sticker Era
Ask anyone who grew up here in the '80s or '90s, and they'll mention the stickers. Each finished book earned one, and each sticker earned a spot on the giant summer display that covered the library's front window. Kids would compare sheets on the playground, trade book recommendations like baseball cards, and lobby parents for one more trip downtown before closing time.
Longtime staff members remember those summers fondly — and a little chaotically. The final week of the program regularly meant a line out the door, a floor covered in craft supplies from the closing celebration, and a staff racing to tally hundreds of reading logs by hand.
How the Program Grew Up
Over the years, the program adapted. Themes arrived — one summer it was space exploration, another it was a countywide scavenger hunt tied to books about local history. Storytime hours were added for kids too young to read on their own, so families could participate together. Teen volunteering followed, and some of those teenage helpers eventually ended up working at the library as adults.
The pandemic years forced a pivot to porch pickups and virtual storytimes, but participation held remarkably steady. If anything, staff say, the disruption reminded the community how much the program meant — and sign-ups surged when in-person events returned.
The Readers It Made
The program's true legacy isn't in the archives; it's walking around town. Teachers, farmers, nurses, and small-business owners across Luverne got their start as summer readers, pedaling downtown with a stack of paperbacks strapped to their bike baskets.
"I honestly credit that program with who I am," one lifelong patron told us. "I was a shy kid. The library was the place where I got to be brave."
This Summer's Chapter Is Waiting
The tradition continues this year with a new theme, weekly events for all ages, and — yes — the return of the sticker chart, by popular demand. Registration opens in early June at the front desk and online, and it's free for every child and teen in the area.
Fifty years from now, today's participants will be the ones telling stories about their summers here. All they need is a library card and a good first book. We've got plenty of both.
