The Perry Public Library’s “Build a Better World” summer reading program is officially over, which has given the organizers a chance to reflect.

Children’s Librarian Suzanne Kestel felt the kid’s program was a huge success, as they had the biggest turnout in the program’s history. “We had an actual attendance of 503, and we’ve never had that many before. So that was a recordbreaker right there! I think the year before, we had 460-some, so we jumped quite a bit.” Thankfully for Kestel, the participants didn’t all show up at the same time.

The young adult program had lower numbers than the kids, but Deputy Library Director Misty VonBehren said they were consistently attending each event. “My numbers were up, I had over 70 registered for the entire program, which is really good. And then with my weekly programs, I averaged 15 or so teens to come to a program every week. And that’s pretty good for a library to get those young adults in there, you know in the middle of the summer into a library.”

For the adult program, Library Director Mary Murphy said she judged its success based on the sheer volume of book reviews they received in only two months. “I was going to attempt to count the book reviews that we have, because when you sign up for the adult summer reading program you get these small prizes by doing book reviews. And then every book review after that, you still get to put in for the grand prizes. And (the number of reviews) it’s over 600! It’s a lot!”

To hear more about the Perry summer reading programs, listen to a three-part interview starting tomorrow on the Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.