So you’re a student or teacher, and you’ve just about had enough of reading—at least for the summer.

Thompson-Nicola Regional District public libraries say this is not a good idea if you want to stay sharp and are offering prize incentives to entice those young and old to join one of two summer reading clubs, set to kick off July 1.

Up for grabs to reading enthusiasts are a video gaming system and e-readers, simply for consistently reading books throughout the summer and writing short reviews on them. The contest is open to youth (Summer Reading Program) and adult (Adult Reading Club) library members, and there will even be a special reading program contest for three-year-olds.

“The whole program is designed to help children with their reading skills during the summer,” explains Deborha Merrick, head librarian for Merritt. She says kids tend to lose their reading skills throughout the summer, and by continuing to read in the off-season, they will be fresher and better prepared than non-reading students come the fall.

“In the end, what they win is better reading skills and they do better in school, and that’s a prize in and of itself.”

But if that isn’t enough to get people to spend part of the hot season as book worms, the TNRD is offering a grand prize draw for a Kobo Touch e-reader in the adult and teen programs as well as a Kobo Vox and Nintendo 3DS for younger readers.

Teens can win a Kobo Vox or Kobo Touch for submitting reviews, says Merrick.

The summer reading program for teens kicks of Tuesday with a summer reading party at Merritt Public Library. The party takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Merrick says the teen program will adopt the theme of “Strange…but true?” in conjunction with the year of science in Canada, although readers are free to read about whatever they wish.

The Adult Reading Club, in which the TNRD asks readers to take a “novel vacation” starts July 1 and ends Aug. 31.

“All readers have to do is register for the program online at www.tnrdlib.ca, then write and submit a book log once every week. If they can’t read a book every week, they can always write a description for a book they’ve read in the past,” says the TNRD. “To complete a book log, adult readers will need to fill in their library card numbers, their names, the title of the book, and a short description (150 words or less) of the book.”

The TNRD will enter the reader’s name into the grand prize draw for the e-reader up to a maximum of nine times for every week that readers submit a book log.