The Chicopee Public Library kicked off its annual summer reading program.

"Even though it is educational, it is a little sneaky because they get prizes or incentives to read and it gives them something to do," said Ambreen Rafiq.

Rafiq has two daughters, Amaan and Aleena Khan, who are participating in the program. 

"I used to be part of it when I was little, when I went to Bellamy, so it's fun for them," said Rafiq.

The library is encouraging kids to read over summer break and they are working to make it fun.

"Summer reading is a great time to keep up on getting your academic brain ready to go back to school next year, particularly right now after we had a big interruption in our lives because of the pandemic,” said Erin Daly, the library's youth services coordinator. “It's great to read anything. It is great to read something you chose to read.”

The library is offering raffle prizes for reading, which is all tracked on a reading log with a map. 

"You can color in a box for every hour you read and you get a raffle chance for every five hours," said Daly. "You can travel around the world looking at animals with tails and reading stories which are different tales, because our theme is ‘tails and tales’ this year."

There are about 100 people signed up for the program so far and the library said they are happy to help more get started. 

"If you come in here and are not sure if you like to read, I will find you something so come in and whatever it is you like, there's got to be a book for you," Daly said.

Rafiq's daughters know what they like and they have no problem finding some good tails and tales to read.

"Any type of dog books, we are puppy lovers," said Rafiq.

The summer reading program is going on until August 13. Anyone who wants to participate can sign up on the library's website.