AADL Summer Game Makes Reading Fun

The Ann Arbor District Libraries (AADL) Summer Game begins June 13 and runs until school restarts, with its goal to make reading fun and exciting all summer long.

“As early as the 1930s, the Library promoted a summer reading program encouraging kids to continue reading over summer break,” said Richard Retyi, AADL communications and marketing manager.  “The modern Summer Game began in 2011, combining the classic Summer Reading Game but adding much, much more for kids, teens and adults. Today, Summer Game players use the Library to find codes, solve puzzles, attend events and earn points toward awesome AADL prizes. There are scavenger hunts, badges and so much more.”

The game is based on a point system to encourage reading.

“Players get points with all their play, and those points can be used to redeem prizes in the Summer Game shop, which opens in July,” Retyi said. “The shop offers different prizes every year like t-shirts, mugs, coffee, tea, stuffed animals, yo-yos, umbrellas, beach balls and more.”


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People with existing AADL accounts can sign up at play.aadl.org, or people without an account can create one at aadl.org. The Summer Game, in its 14th year,  may be the most popular event that AADL does all year.

“The Summer Game is one of the biggest things AADL does all year,” Retyi said.  “In 2023, 12,660 players enjoyed the Summer Game, redeeming 2,877 codes online and all around town, and earning 379,246 Summer Game badges! We get messages all summer long from players of all ages who love all different aspects of the game — from puzzle solving, to tracking their reading, movie watching and album listening, or those who travel all around Ann Arbor finding codes in scavenger hunts.”

The 12,660 people involved in 2023 was a record, over the 2022 number of 10,114.

The Summer Game is free to play and it’s for every single age. The Game is both online and in person.

The Summer Game ends the day before the first day of school — Sunday, August 25.

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