The leaves are falling, the wind is blowing, the snow is about to fall and sweaters are brought to the front of our closets. It’s time for Minot Public Library’s Sweater Weather Reading Challenge! This is the Library’s cold weather reading program where there’s a monthly theme, and readers choose a book on that theme. Librarians have created booklists to help readers select the perfect book, but readers are also welcome to choose another title that fits the monthly theme. The program only requires readers to read one book a month to be entered for some great prizes.

The idea behind the Sweater Weather Reading Challenge is to encourage people to try out books that perhaps they wouldn’t usually read. As Janet Anderson, MPL Library Director said, “Of course, the Library doesn’t want people to read books that they hate, but we do want to help you try books that maybe you do like, you just didn’t know it yet.”

According to the Children’s Book Review April 2022 issue, the more exposure readers get to many genres, the more comfortable and self-assured they become reading. Reading different genres improves general comprehension. For instance, if a reader is reading a fiction book, the mind focuses on characters, setting, themes, and plot line. If it is a nonfiction book, the reader attends to helpful charts, pictures and scholarship of real-life facts. With fantasy reading, readers must understand and distinguish between elements and events that cannot happen in real life and those that can. Meanwhile, readers of historical fiction distinguish that the manners, dress, laws and political events may be real, but the characters are not. Along with improving the skill of comprehension, diverse genres expose readers to different vocabulary, photographs, and illustrations, which assist readers to build a context that they can apply to their further reading.

The Library will have one winner in each age category per month, as well as a grand prize winner for each age group. The Sweater Weather Reading Challenge has four age categories: Read to Me and Read to Myself for kids under 11, the Teen Reading Challenge, and the Adult Reading Challenge. Adult Services Librarian Zhaina Moya asks, “Isn’t it worth reading a book that’s a little different from what you usually read for a chance to win some awesome prizes?” Moya said readers in each category are entered to win a $25 gift card from a variety of local businesses. This includes gift cards to the Roosevelt Park Zoo, AMC Theater, Magic City Sweets, Planet Pizza, Main Street Books, and more for a total of $100 worth of prizes given away each month in addition to the grand prize. The Library is able to offer these amazing prizes and host the Sweater Weather program thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the Minot Public Library group.

To kick off the program, readers will read “Own Voice” books. These are books from the author’s own cultural perspective. Next, in December, the Library will feature poetry which can include a novel in verse or something as simple as the classic poem “The Night Before Christmas.” For the start of 2023, the theme is “New Year, New Me.” Self-help, new recipes, new skills, or a new take on life will all be included in this month’s theme. Finally, the Sweater Weather Reading Challenge will end in February with “Page to Screen.” Included in this final category is any book made into a TV show, streaming service program, or movie. Cartoons count as well, so readers will have a large variety of options to help ensure they get entered for this final month.

To participate in the Library’s Sweater Weather Reading Challenge, readers can download the Beanstack app to their smartphones or follow the link on the MPL website. Participants will register for the challenge through the app or on the website. In the app, readers tap on the “activities” button to record book titles in the appropriate categories. Participants can only win prizes by entering their book titles under “activities” in Beanstack.

“The Minot Public Library’s Sweater Weather Reading Challenge is a special program that takes readers to new places to explore, understand, and come away with a deeper appreciation of ourselves and our neighbors,” says Randi Monley, Children’s Librarian. Take the journey with the Minot Public Library and join the Sweater Weather Reading Challenge today. For more information, contact the Library at 852-1045, visit www.minotlibrary.org or follow the Library on Facebook and Instagram.