winner winner chicken dinner

her prize was *much* better than a chicken dinner (in her opinion!)

 

the story:

this girl has struggled with reading.  the library summer reading program has been a fantastic incentive for her to pick up a book rather than stare at a screen.  at the beginning of the summer she set a goal for herself to fill up three tracking sheets.  she surpassed her goal and filled 3 and a half of them.  (woot!)   this gave her 7 entries for the big prizes being offered.  she put all her entries into the prize she wanted most:  a brand new American Girl doll, the "Girl of the Year" Makenna.    

now her next younger sister was also signed up for the reading program.  she reads fine but has declared reading is "just not her thing."  it was a battle all summer to get her to read and even when she did she often forgot to fill out her tracking sheet.  apparently a little less driven then her sister when it comes to prizes, ha ha.   she managed to squeak out a little over half of one sheet. 

part of the reading program also earned them "book bucks" to spend for small prizes and at the carnival being held the day after we left on our road trip.  the girls were a bit miffed that they would be missing the carnival but the library allowed them to spend 20 book bucks (the eldest had earned the max of 50 and her younger sis had earned just over 20) on some prizes before we left on vacation.  so despite the vast difference in how much time each had spent on reading they had the same amount of prizes. 

well fast forward to our road trip.  while speeding down I-90 somewhere in the midst of Montana the carnival was taking place in our home town.  we received a text from a super sweetheart librarian who also happens to be a fantastic babysitter dearly loved by all of us letting us know that our eldest had won the American Girl!  YAAAYYYY! this mama was so excited for her daughter and to see the look on her face was priceless.  she spent a lot of time on vacation studying the American Girl catalog to see what else she could save her pennies for to go with her new doll.  she had to wait over 2 weeks before we would be back in town and she could pick her up. (a bit torturous for her)  as soon as the library opened the monday we were back my eldest zipped on over there to claim her prize. 

congrats girly, you are my star reader. 

and dare i say, all that reading this summer has actually instilled some habits of reading into her and she actually seems to be enjoying books?!?  thank you, thank you, thank you reading program!