HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Hawaii State Public Library System hosted their 2025 summer reading challenge with more than 23,400 readers!
“Over the summer, tens of thousands of readers from across Hawaii showed us how much reading matters,” said State Librarian Stacey A. Aldrich.
Sponsors for the challenge included the Friends of the Library of Hawaii, Alaska Airlines, Hawaii State Federal Credit Union, McDonald’s Restaurants of Hawaii and Pizza Hut Hawaii.
Age of participating readers
By age, the following amount of readers participated:
- Keiki (birth through grade 5): 9,692.
- Teens: 3,091.
- Adults: 10,684.
The exact total of readers was 23,467.
This number is up by 44 percent from 2024, HSPLS said.
Summer reading challenge
During the two-month challenge from June 1 to July 31, participants tracked their reading differently depending on their age. Keiki logged minutes, while teens and adults kept count of the number of books they read.
- Keiki logged 5,357,135 minutes.
- Teens and adults read 102,888 books.
Readers also made 21,077 library visits to record the Word of the Week, reported HSPLS.
“I’m grateful to everyone who joined in and were a part of strengthening our tradition of literacy in Hawaii,” Aldrich said.
Participants of the challenge are eligible to win prizes through random drawings.
There will be regional winners in each of the age groups, with the grand prize of four round-trip tickets from Alaska Airlines going to one lucky winner!
Announcements on who has won will be made by the end of August.