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Record-breaking Summer for Hawai‘i Readers – Participation Surges 44 Percent
Posted on: August 7, 2025 | Category: Spotlight
More than 23,400 readers joined this year’s Hawaiʻi State Public Library System’s Summer Reading Challenge—up 44 percent from 2024.
“Over the summer, tens of thousands of readers from across Hawaiʻi showed us how much reading matters,” said State Librarian Stacey A. Aldrich. “I’m grateful to everyone who joined in and were a part of strengthening our tradition of literacy in Hawaiʻi.”
By the Numbers:
Total Readers: 23,467 (up from 16,248 last summer)
- Children: 9,692
- Teens: 3,091
- Adults: 10,684
Children (birth through grade 5) logged the number of minutes they read, while teens and adults tracked the number of books they read during the two-month challenge, which ran from June 1 through July 31.
- Kids logged 5,357,135 minutes of reading
- Teens and adults reported reading 102,888 books
In addition, readers made 21,077 visits to the library to get and record the Word of the Week.
One lucky Summer Reading Challenge participant will be the winner of the grand prize – four round-trip tickets on Alaska Airlines following a random drawing this week. Regional winners in each of the age groups will also be notified following the random drawing. All winners will be announced later this month.
The 2025 Summer Reading Challenge was sponsored by the Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i, Alaska Airlines, Hawai‘i State Federal Credit Union, McDonald’s Restaurants of Hawai‘i and Pizza Hut Hawai‘i.
