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Summer Learning Program 2024
Summer Learning Adventure
Jersey City Free Public Library is excited to announce its 2024 Summer Learning Program, “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” which will be held at all Library branches, including our Bookmobile from June 17th to August 9th. This year’s theme,” Adventure Begins at Your Library” celebrates adventure, travel, and trying new things. So, join us for a summer learning adventure at your library!
What is the Summer Learning Program
This summer, the Jersey City Free Public Library is transforming into a hub of adventure and learning for families and friends. With a program designed to cater to all ages, the Library invites the community to embark on a journey of discovery and fun.
The adventure begins with a “passport” that takes participants on a trip around the world, exploring different countries and cultures every week. This immersive experience is not just about reading; it’s about engaging with the world in a hands-on way.
How to sign up
There are two ways to sign up:
- Log in or sign-up on the JCFPL Beanstack
- Visit your local Branch Library and have a staff member assist you
Beanstack Tutorials
Grade 9- (Exiting Grade 8)
| Reading Choices | Grade 9- (Exiting Grade 8) |
|---|---|
| Choice 1 | Maximum Ride, James Patterson – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available on Hoopla – Audio available on Hoopla for reading support Summary: Six unforgettable kids — with no families, no homes — are running for their lives. Max Ride and her best friends have the ability to fly. And that’s just the beginning of their amazing powers. But they don’t know where they come from, who’s hunting them, why they are different from all other humans… and if they’re meant to save mankind — or destroy it. |
| Choice 2 | Game of Stars, Sayantani DasGupta – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Audio available on Hoopla for reading support Summary: When the Demon Queen shows up in her bedroom, smelling of acid and surrounded by evil-looking bees, twelve-year-old Kiranmala is uninterested. After all, it’s been weeks since she last heard from her friends in the Kingdom Beyond, the alternate dimension where she was born as an Indian princess. But after a call to action over an interdimensional television station and a visit with some all-seeing birds, Kiran decides that she has to once again return to her homeland, where society is fraying, a terrible game show reigns supreme, and friends and foes alike are in danger. Everyone is running scared or imprisoned following the enactment of sudden and unfair rules of law. However, things are a lot less clear than the last time she was in the Kingdom Beyond. Kiran must once again solve riddles and battle her evil Serpent King father — all while figuring out who her true friends are, and what it really means to be a hero. |
| Choice 3 | Harbor Me, Jacqueline Woodson – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available in some schools by request Summary: Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson, is a beautifully written book that packs a big emotional punch. For an hour each week, six kids with learning differences share their stories together — stories that include an incarcerated parent, a parent detained by immigration, bullying, and racial profiling. |
| Choice 4 | Edgar Allan Poe short stories – Available on StudySync -Complete a reading of the entire collection of 5 short stories listed below: “Annabel Lee” “The Tell Tale Heart“ “The Black Cat” “The Masque of the Red Death” “Death of Edgar A. Poe” by N.P. Willis Non-Fiction, 1849 |
| Choice 5 | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Audio available on Hoopla Summary: Meaninglessness and Happiness is the message throughout The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a story about a human man named Arthur who hitchhikes through space, many characters try to find meaning in their lives and search for the significance of their own existences. |
Grade 10- (Exiting Grade 9)
Grade 10- (Exiting Grade 9) | |
| Choice 1 | Ms. Marvel:Something New Issues # 25-35 – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available on Hoopla Summary: Collects Ms. Marvel (2015) #25-35. The malleable Ms. Marvel continues her hero’s journey! An enemy from her past begins targeting those closest to her ― a challenge that calls into question everything about Kamala Khan. Not just as a superhero, but as a human being! Who can Ms. Marvel trust with everyone in Jersey City against her and a new crimefighter moving in on her turf? Meanwhile, Bruno may be far away at a prestigious school in Wakanda, but adventure still finds him! And when calamity strikes while Kamala is having a sleepover with Nakia, Zoe and Mike, can Ms. Marvel save the day without bailing on her best friends? Then, a long-awaited reunion turns a little crazy, causing Ms. Marvel’s powers to fritz ― and Kamala will have to pull it together to battle a classic Marvel villain! |
| Choice 2 | Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll – Available on gutenberg.org-Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available on Hoopla – Audio available on Hoopla for reading support Summary: A young girl named Alice sits beside her sister on a bank when all of a sudden a White Rabbit rushes past her, talking to himself about how late he is. Alice instinctively follows him down a rabbit hole. She falls and falls. Time and gravity seem to stop, so that she can explore the shelves and objects on the walls of the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, she finds herself in a long hall, surrounded by locked doors of all sizes. She finds a key, which opens the tiniest door of all, but she is too big to fit through into the idyllic garden inside. |
| Choice 3 | Untwine, Edwidge Danticat – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Audio available on Hoopla for reading support Summary: A haunting and mesmerizing story about sisterhood, family, love, and loss by literary luminary Edwidge Danticat.Giselle Boyer and her identical twin, Isabelle, are as close as sisters can be, even as their family seems to be unraveling. Then the Boyers have a tragic encounter that will shatter everyone’s world forever. Giselle wakes up in the hospital, injured and unable to speak or move. Trapped in the prison of her own body, Giselle must revisit her past in order to understand how the people closest to her — her friends, her parents, and above all, Isabelle, her twin — have shaped and defined her. Will she allow her love for her family and friends to lead her to recovery? Or will she remain lost in a spiral of longing and regret? Untwine is a spellbinding tale, lyrical and filled with love, mystery, humor, and heartbreak. Award-winning author Edwidge Danticat brings her extraordinary talent to this graceful and unflinching examination of the bonds of friendship, romance, family, the horrors of loss, and the strength we must discover in ourselves when all seems hopeless. |
| Choice 4 | Other Words From Home, Jasmine Warga – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available on Hoopla–Available on Hoopla Audio for support Summary: Other Words for Home is a modern-day story of immigration and bravery. It tells the story of one young girl’s desire to start her new life in America while she still honors the family and life she left behind in Syria. |
| Choice 5 | Edgar Allan Poe short stories – Available on StudySync – Complete a reading of the entire collection of 5 short stories listed below: The Pit and The Pendulum “The Fall of the House of Usher” “Sonnet-to Science” “The Bells” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” |
Grade 11- (Exiting Grade 10)
Grade 11- (Exiting Grade 10) | |
| Choice 1 | The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan-Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Audio available on Hoopla Summary: Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who’s telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. |
| Choice 2 | The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available on Hoopla – Audio available on Hoopla Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award! Summary: Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth. |
| Choice 3 | I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Erika L. Sanchez – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library Summary: Sánchez’s award-winning novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter follows Julia, a Chicago high school student as she navigates trials and tribulations of following her dreams of becoming a writer alongside the death of her sister, Olga—who might not have been quite as perfect as she seemed. |
| Choice 4 | Dystopian Short Stories – Available on StudySync – Complete a reading of the entire collection of short stories listed below: “A Sound of Thunder,” Ray Bradbury Excerpt from Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury“Letter to Brian Sibley,” Ray Bradbury Excerpt from Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins |
| Choice 5 | The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston** – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available in some schools in limited quantities Summary: The Woman Warrior focuses on the stories of five women—Kingston’s long-dead aunt, “No-Name Woman”; a mythical female warrior, Fa Mu Lan; Kingston’s mother, Brave Orchid; Kingston’s aunt, Moon Orchid; and finally Kingston herself—told in five chapters. The chapters integrate Kingston’s lived experience with a series of talk-stories—spoken stories that combine Chinese history, myths, and beliefs—her mother tells her. |
| Choice 6 | The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available on HooplaAudio available on Hoopla Summary: William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was a mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger, and a place where hope and opportunity were hard to find. But William had read about windmills in a book called Using Energy, and he dreamed of building one that would bring electricity and water to his village and change his life and the lives of those around him. His neighbors may have mocked him and called him misala–crazy–but William was determined to show them what a little grit and ingenuity could do. |
Grade 12- (Exiting Grade 11)
Grade 12- (Exiting Grade 11) | |
| Choice 1 | Becoming, Michelle Obama – Available at the Jersey City Public Library Summary: Becoming is the memoir of former first lady of the United States Michelle Obama, published in 2018. Described by the author as a deeply personal experience, the book talks about her roots and how she found her voice, as well as her time in the White House, her public health campaign, and her role as a mother. |
| Choice 2 | Wolfpack, Abby Wambach – Available through the Jersey City Public Library and in some school buildings. – Audio available on Hoopla (read by the author) Summary: Based on her inspiring, viral 2018 commencement speech to Barnard College’s graduates in New York City, New York Times bestselling author, two-time Olympic gold medallist and FIFA World Cup champion Abby Wambach delivers her empowering rally cry for women to unleash their individual power, unite with their pack, and emerge victorious together. |
| Choice 3 | What The Dog Saw and Other Adventures, Malcolm Gladwell – Available at the Jersey City Public Library Summary: Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the “dog whisperer” who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and “hindsight bias” and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate. |
| Choice 4 | Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte – Available on StudySync – Available at the Jersey City Free Public Library – Available on HooplaAudio available on Hoopla Summary: Wuthering Heights is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with Earnshaw’s foster son, Heathcliff. |
| Choice 5 | How to Read Literature Like a College Professor, Thomas C. Foster – Available on Hoopla – Audio available on Hoopla Summary: While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes—and the literary codes—of the ultimate professional reader, the college professor.What does it mean when a literary hero is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower? |
Note: When creating a new account, please make sure to remember your log-in information, choose your local branch, and fill in the required information. Don’t forget to accept the Summer Learning Program challenge for your age group to earn your first badge.
On June 17th, you can begin to log your books and attend the wonderful programs we have at your local branch or department.
Passport Adventures
All library branches will be participating in the Passport Adventure. Each Branch Library will build a new display representing their chosen country weekly, providing activities and information about that week’s country. There will be videos, a book display, pictures, and props to interact with and teach patrons about that country.
Don’t forget to take your passport with you to get it stamped when you visit a branch. You can pick up your passport at your local branch where you register for the program. Passport adventures are for all ages.
Programs and Events
Participants can scan a QR code to stay informed and receive timely reminders, making registration a breeze. Jersey City Free Public Library is more than just a place for books; it’s a community space where learning and enjoyment go hand in hand. So, gather your family and friends and make this summer a memorable one at your local library.
Programs and events for SLP include:
- Kickoff events at your local branch
- Judy McEngland Puppet Show
- Interactive STEM storytelling
- Children’s book author appearances
- Programs exploring New Jersey
- Cheese and wine pairing/Silent Auction for adults
Check the calendar for our full slate of SLP events!