Reading Challenges

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is an education initiative with three main goals: to promote early childhood literacy, to prepare young children for kindergarten and to facilitate family bonding through reading.

Parents and caregivers may register any child between the ages of 0–6. Any book may be counted and books may be repeated. Repetition is even encouraged as it increases both comprehension and confidence in young children. Keep track on your paper log or in Beanstack. Prizes can be selected by filling out this form or by stopping by the Children's Desk on the 2nd floor.

All children who have not entered kindergarten or the equivalent are eligible to register. Participants are not required to be Normal Public Library cardholders or residents of Normal. Participants are welcome to register for this program even if they are completing other area 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten programs.

Read, Renew, Repeat | June 3–July 31

Watch for the 2024 Summer Reading Challenge to come to Beanstack.

January 2, 2024–January 3, 2025

Register for the 2024 Adult Reading Challenge and receive this year’s reading notebook (while supplies last)! Every month read a book on that month's theme, log it in Beanstack, and earn a themed sticker (pick up at the front desk or via our Curb-It service) and an entry into that month's drawing for a gift card to a local business! Participate nine months out of the year and you are eligible for entry into the grand prize drawing!

Readers are also encouraged to sign up for a monthly newsletter with suggestions for that month's theme. Select the Year-Round Adult Reading Challenge on our NextReads sign up page to get the newsletter or view the current issue.

For readers 18 and older.

This challenge is supported by the Normal Public Library Foundation.

Monthly Themes

January—Read something from a Best Books of 2023 list

February—Read a funny book

March—Read a book by a neurodivergent author

April—Read a book by an Arab American author

May—Read a book about someone who is over 60

June—Read a climate fiction novel

July—Read a book about or set in Africa

August—Read a book by a first-time author

September—Read a book about science or technology

October—Read a LGBTQ+ historical fiction novel

November—Read a book about someone experiencing housing insecurity

December—Read a short story collection

The 2024 Winter Reading Challenge has ended!

Watch for our next reading challenge on this page and on Beanstack. You can keep logging your reading in Beanstack anytime, whether we are offering a challenge or not!

Beanstack is our website and app for tracking your reading anytime and for our library reading challenges.

You can create an account in Beanstack anytime and use it to keep track of your reading. When a reading challenge becomes available for you, keep tracking your reading and it will count for your challenge!

Use Beanstack on any computer or find the Beanstack Tracker app on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. If you have already created an account on Beanstack online you can use that. New readers will need to register.

If your child is already signed up for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten then you have a Beanstack login!

Your email address

Password: beanstack

Once you login, you may change it to something more personal.

Members of a family can all be on the same account, just change readers using the top-left menu (on both the website and app).

Use Beanstack anytime! Keep track of your reading year-round and join our challenges when they are available.