This past summer Acton Library’s youth readers had a choice of rewards for reaching summer reading milestones: personal prizes or cans of cat food. As often as not, they chose to reward the cats. That means that by the end of the summer, Acton Library was able to donate 385 cans of cat food to the non-profit Valley Shore Animal League from the Summer Readers.

“The program was called Read to Feed. A lot of kids would split their reading reward between prizes for themselves and the pet food,” said Library Assistant Director Karen Guigno.

In the Children’s Library, Guigno placed an animal carrier next to the Acton General Store where readers redeemed their prizes. The young readers placed their pet food can donations right into the carrier.

“A young woman, Samantha Hart, painted a mural to help us promote the Read to Feed program,” said Guigno.

Young readers could earn one Acton Library Reading Buck for every 20 minutes that they read this summer. Teenagers in grades 7 through 12 could donate one can of cat food for every book they read. Teens also could accumulate their Acton Library bucks to redeem for gift cards donated by local businesses.

Young Adult and Reference Librarian Michael Sweeney noticed that there was a bit more interest in realistic fiction this summer. There was a greater mix of reading choices from both realistic fiction and fantasy fiction. Recent years had seen youth lean more toward the fantasy fiction choices.

Sweeney also has worked to re-organize the young adult/teen area of Acton Library, defined by its green walls, to make it more inviting.

“We moved teen non-fiction to mix it in with adult non-fiction. This left more shelving space for young adult fiction, biographies, and graphic novels. And we have added a table for them to sit at and comfortable barrel chairs with a coffee table. The young adult space now is more well-defined,” said Sweeney.

Each summer the town’s young readers can register on-line through Acton Library to participate in the Governor’s Reading Challenge. Once registered, the system offers readers the opportunity to log what they read and for how long. The system also allows readers to post online reviews of the books they read.

Guigno and Sweeney were pleased that this summer’s young readers were so generous in offering their reading rewards to benefit the shoreline’s orphan cats.