Howdy folks! Alyssa Jewell (La La Librarian) here this week guest blogging while Lindsey is doing one of the herculean tasks many of you are likely doing this week: preparing for Summer Reading!
The folks in Storytime Central and I have also been gearing up for what is surely the busiest time of year for public children’s librarians.
Let’s break it down:
In the US, many libraries are participating in the CSLP program: Unearth A Story or iREAD 2026: Plant a Seed, Read. In Canada, many of y’all are doing the TD Summer Reading Club theme Dive In!/Plonge! Of course, participation varies by state, province, etc. and there are many ways to approach these themes (or not do it at all, as some libraries choose!).
I’m interested: What are your thoughts about Summer Reading themes?
Do you get excited? Do your patrons get excited? Are the resources super helpful, or do you end up having to do extra planning, which stresses you out amidst an already busy season? Any tips? Tell us in the comments!
For those of you doing Unearth A Story (or if you just really like dinosaurs) continue on…
Ok, so unpopular opinion (?) – my colleagues and I found that while the CSLP manual is loaded with valuable ideas, many folks who do storytimes with very young children feel it’s most marketable to do an entire summer of dinosaur storytimes rather than combining dinosaurs, earth/soil, history & information, paleontology, and archaeology. We know little kids get super excited about dinosaurs, and repetition is good for them, so let’s just lean in.
The issue is that most of us could do 2 or 3 dinosaur storytimes – but 8?! That’s a lot of dino repertoire! So I took a deep dive y’all. I have been training for this moment. 🦖
There are a ton of great dinosaur books and recorded songs. Not all of them will work in group storytime, but there are a bunch that will! The area I felt could use a little development was piggyback songs and prop songs (which happen to be my specialties.)
I made a Dinosaur Storytime Mini-Guide for Storytime Central, and I want to make it available for you as well.
Please feel free to share it with any colleagues, as resources vary so widely from state to state in the US. Same, Canada? Or y’all good? Maybe Lindsey can chime in on this when she comes up for air.
I digress. The mini-guide includes:
🎶 15 piggyback songs
🪇 10 Prop songs
🎤 11 Movement songs
📚 My top 25 dinosaur books that work beautifully with playful presentation techniques for GROUPS of children, divided into ages 0-2 and ages 3-6.
As far as framing the series of storytimes, here are some of the ideas we had in our PD session were:
Dino Dance Party
Movement- and music-based. Great for large groups.
Dinosaurs Love Storytime
Perfect for very young crowds. Pick four elements you repeat every week, then add one thematic book and one piggyback song.
Examples: Dinosaurs Love Transportation, Dinosaurs Love Bedtime, Dinosaurs Love Dancing, Dinosaurs Love Food.
Dinosnores
A pajama dino storytime. Great for mornings when you want to stay in your PJs, evenings, and weekends.
Dinosaur Remix Storytime
This idea came from our consultant Katie Jane. Introduce the concept of a remix, then take a popular or classic book and remix it by adding dinosaurs! For example, in Caps for Sale, the dinosaurs steal the hats instead of the monkeys.
I hope this is helpful as you prepare for Summer Reading 🫶
Got any dinosaur favorites to add? Tell me in the comments!
Godspeed Storytime Warriors!
Thanks for all the great resources! While we love that the CSLP provides us with a theme and especially the marketing materials to match, we do not follow the theme very closely. Typically we’ll match one week of storytimes, a few other events, and some activities in our Reading Challenges, but the majority does not fit the theme. We like to have a larger variety of topics, and the themed materials in our system are in super high demand with so many librarians wanting them for storytimes, displays, and other events that it’s sometimes difficult to get what you want. Our patrons don’t pay attention to the theme either.
So many good points – especially about all the books being hard to come by. I currently have like 100 dinosaur books in my system checked out so I could make this mini guide I like this balanced approach a lot Nicole.
I thought I replied to this, so sorry if this is a double reply Nicole. Yes! Many good points! I love your balanced approach. To your themed materials point – I currently have like, 100 dinosaur books checked out (yikes!)
I love summer reading! I love the energy and being busy and seeing so many families. It is my favorite time of year. I agree that dinos are a big hit, but I also think worms and dirt are good for storytime crowds, too. I came up with a couple storytime rhymes/songs (and a way to use Laurie Berkner’s We Are the Dinosaurs as a parachute song and wrote about them on my blog: https://msemilylibrary.com/2026/03/20/unearth-a-story-ideas/
Love these parachute ideas Emily! Your blog is so great ❤️ I also get excited about Summer Reading – the energy is so fun. The library I used to work at has an overwhelming influx of patrons, so we’d have to really mentally and emotionally prepare for it. I liken it to working in retail during the holidays haha. Just absolutely exhausting!
Thanks so much, Alyssa! It gets that way here, too. By the end, I am READY for a break. But I still enjoy it!
Yes, for sure! It’s very clear from your work that you love what you do! ❤️
I love a good theme. I like that we get a theme so that I can build a summer around it. At our library we have family fun nights, this year we have 2 animal shows one with reptiles, the other birds of prey. We also have a couple of dinosaur themed including dino digs and a traveling museum. With the inclusion of America 250 I have 2 performers one who will teach songs that go back to the early days of America, teach traditional dances and more. The other is a master storyteller that will bring the American Revolution to life. I just find it easier to build around it and use it as a generality for our patrons.
I, too, love a good theme. What fun programming! Tell me more about this traveling dinosaur museum!
She is probably talking about the traveling America250 museum. Our library had it back in March.
We really don’t use the summer themes for anything but the artwork on our reading program, etc. I can’t remember, but we might have a gardening storytime program planned, but mostly we have just regular themes, for both storytimes and programs for older kids.
Not following whatever the summer reading program theme each year allows for a lot more freedom. For example, I’m doing a Warriors theme for school aged kids, but that would be hard to twist into a theme.
Yes, Danielle – I think you hit the nail on the head that flexibility is very important. In the ongoing discussions about storytime theming in general (or even unit theming in ECE) your approach demonstrates what many are argue is most important: responding to the interests of your specific kiddos rather than trying to twists stuff into a theme. Warriors sounds fun! My son is just about old enough to begin to enjoy those series!
We used the iRead theme from 2020 to last year and CSLP for about 20 years before that. However, in the last decade or so, we really only used the national theme for the clip art and posters. Pre-millennium our library had homegrown themes each year with *heavy* event theming. It took a LOT of work, so I can understand why they went to the national theme. We decided for 2026 to go back homegrown BUT not going as heavy into theming. We paid a local artist to make us a suite of animal characters (animals commonly found here) reading and doing other learning activities and came up with our own theme, which relates to libraries and reading (with a little pun in there for locals who Remember the 90s in our town). Each year going forward will highlight one of the animal characters and have a reading/book/story/library theme (animal puns potentially in there if I can convince my crew who hates puns – remind me why I hired them again…). That way the theme relates to reading, which is the ultimate point of the program anyway, and since the general public doesn’t care overmuch about the theme , we don’t feel pressure to have all our events match the theme exactly.
Oh that’s very cool to support a local artist and highlight the animals in your area! What a great idea. I like the nostalgia too! I definitely read my fair share as a kid in the 90s (free pizza or no free pizza haha.)
It used to be exciting to pore over the manual each year and program to a theme. I know how much work goes into creating those manuals and resources. Over the past ten years I’ve convinced staff to call summer reading “summer reading” and use a generic theme so we can be flexible. We’ve also changed how patrons track their reading and that’s been a fun evolution. As others have said, I don’t think the public ever knew or cared about the theme. I am glad the theme is there for libraries who need it and want it.
This is a really balanced take as well, and YES sooo much work goes into the manual. I’m so glad it’s there for those of us who use it. I think the elementary resources are especially strong. I agree that the public probably isn’t like, that aware of the theme haha. I’m interested to hear how the tracking has changed!
My favorite dinosaur picture books are:
My Dinosaur by Mark Alan Weatherby
Dad’s Dinosaur Day by Diane Dawson Hearn
Oooh, I will check them out and add them to my database! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Alyssa, for sharing this resource here on Jbrary! Almost every province in Canada follows the TD Summer Reading Club which is an ocean theme this year. My province, BC, always does our own thing. Luckily we also have an ocean theme this year! My dream is that one day all the different SRC/SRP themes across North America magically align and we can all plan together. A girl can dream!
A few of my favourite dino read alouds not mentioned in your guide include Duck, Duck Dinosaur by Kallie George (a local Vancouver author), We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner (but the song by itself is great too), Dinosaurs Roar by Steve Jenkins, and Rainbowsaurus by Steve Antony. Happy reading to all!
I find it so funny that BC is pretty much the only province to break away from the TD Summer Reading Club, we just have to do our own thing here on the West (BEST) Coast! 😉
My life-long love of poetry was ignited at the tender age of four by Jack Prelutsky’s dinosaur-themed poetry collection TYRANNOSAURUS WAS A BEAST, which we still have in our library!
TYRANNOSAURUS WAS A BEAST *Places hold* Thank you Jane!!
Yay! Thank you for these Lindsey! I LOVE Duck Duck Dinosaur! So cool that she’s local.
Hi Librarian plus pals’ !
I highly suggest “Have you seen my invisible dinosaur” by Helen Yoon for SRP fun .
Love, love, love that one too Miss Mallory! Excellent suggestion!
We Love Dinosaurs! by Lucy Volpin is my favorite,