The Perry Public Library will soon be celebrating a significant milestone when it comes to youth and reading. 

The library will host the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten graduation ceremony at 2 p.m. Sunday, September 25th in the library community room. Children’s Librarian Suzanne Kestel talks about the origins of the program. 

“This program was started in Nevada and it’s pretty well traveled across the United States now, there are several libraries here in Iowa that do the program. The parents just write down the title of the books that the children read, they get to put up a little smiley face on the bulletin board showing how far they’ve gone.”

Kestel tells Raccoon Valley Radio once the children have reached the goal of 1,000 books then they can participate in the event which celebrates their accomplishments. 

“Then I add their name to the ceremony and they get to wear a little graduation cap with tassel and gown and we have refreshment(s) for them and it’s just a way to acknowledge the family that they have hit this milestone because that’s pretty neat that they’ve read 1,000 books before the child has entered kindergarten.”

Kestel says those families and their little ones along with invited guests are welcomed to participate and to get registered you can go here.