The programme
The Latino Children's Summer Reading Program
The first nationwide, online summer reading programme designed specifically for Hispanic students and families. It piloted in 2013 and it was free.
Students read at least eight books over a ten-week programme running from 1 June to 10 August. L4LL built recommended reading lists of Hispanic authors and illustrators — in English, in Spanish and bilingual — for three age bands: under 4, 4 to 8, and 9 to 18. The lists were never mandatory; the page said so plainly. They were “just ones we love and recommend.”
Parents could download the whole apparatus at no charge: the reading lists, a reading pledge, reading logs, a book report, a bilingual printables packet and an end-of-programme certificate of achievement. A paid tier, the DIY Summer Reading Camp, added more than thirty printables across ten themes. Educators, librarians and community groups registered as groups, got a group number to hand to their students, and could then follow what those students read.
Later years added contributions from Latino authors and illustrators directly — Alma Flor Ada, F. Isabel Campoy, René Colato Laínez and Lulu Delacre were named as 2015 contributors — and a year-round programme for six- to twelve-year-olds.
The programme ran in Spanish too, at Programa de Lectura de Verano.
The registration forms, member logins and downloads that lived at these addresses are gone with the site. Nothing here collects an email address or a child's name, and nothing here is a working sign-up. Monica Olivera continued to run a version of the programme at MommyMaestra.