Being a military family that travels often, one of the places we consistently patronize is the libraries. This year's Summer Reading Challenge at Virginia Beach Public Library (VBPL) has been an exciting one for my little avid readers! My 6-year-old daughter, Malika, especially loved the activities in the American Quilt Badge book where she got to interview her Grandma from Ghana about our family tree and history. She also loved discussing with her cousins and friends around the world their family roots in countries such as Ghana, Germany, Nigeria, Belgium, Australia and the UK. She is now on a journey to find various people of different origins. We are so thankful to VBPL for bringing out her interviewing skills and enhancing her appreciation of diversity!

My 4-year-old son, Hassan, is a dinosaur enthusiast and loves visiting the library to explore the numerous books about them, both fiction and nonfiction. During this summer challenge, he decided to help his little 3-month-old brother, Raheem, complete his challenge by reading to him every night!

In the end, Malika completed her Summer Reading Challenge, Hassan completed his 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and the Summer Reading Challenge, and little Raheem completed his Read to Me Challenge and got his first library card! VBPL provides great resources to create avid readers who love books and my family is very grateful! - Gaada I.