BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Bay Minette area children can escape boredom this summer by traveling into the world of reading with summer reading programs at Bay Minette Middle School Library and Bay Minette Public Library.

Middle school programs will be held 8-10 a.m. every Tuesday in June. Meanwhile the public library is holding events each Tuesday in June with 10 a.m. story time at the library and 1 p.m. entertainment at the Bay Minette Civic Center.

According to BMMS librarian Kathy Wright, students can get a jump on summer-reading requirements by participating in the program.

“They have two books they have to read over the summer and then write a review,” she said during a telephone interview. “It’s due at the first of school.”

Children get to choose from a list of about 30 books, Wright explained.

“The eighth-grade reading list has several books on the holocaust because they have a unit of study on it,” she said.

Other titles on the eighth-grade reading list include “The Hobbit,” by J.R. Tolkien, “The Yearling,” by Marjorie Rawlings and “Rumble Fish,” by S.E. Hinton.

But Wright said she hopes the reading program has other benefits, too.

“It’s just to keep the kids reading over the summer, to keep their reading range up,” she said.

Bay Minette Public Library children’s librarian Victoria Barnett expressed similar hopes for her program.

“We want kids to have fun,” she said. “We want them to read and to enjoy reading.”

This year’s theme, “One World, Many Stories,” will include such adventures as walk-about puppets and Aztec dances of Mexico.

The event drew 100-120 children last year, according to Barnett, and contains something for all ages.

Barnett said 10 a.m story-times are aimed more for younger children and their families, while 1 p.m entertainment sessions are geared toward older children.

All ages may participate in the reading contest where children compete in similar age categories to read and log as many books as they can in the program that kicked off last week, she said.

Children can read whatever books they want, and winners will receive medals at the end of the program, Barnett explained.

For more information on the middle-school reading program, call 580-2960. For more information on the public-library reading program, call 580-1648.