BIG Summer Read 2023/24

Blog Articles

October 26, 2023

The BIG Summer Read 2023/24 begins on 1 December 2023. Don’t miss out on your chance to win awesome prizes!

The BIG Summer Read (BSR) is a Victorian statewide summer reading campaign for children and young people. It is a collaborative Public Libraries Victoria initiative, developed to raise awareness and ensure ALL Victorian children have access to the resources they need to maintain literacy skills over the summer school holidays. Kids are encouraged to keep reading over the summer holidays with an incentivised program that uses Beanstack, a mobile app that rewards them for reading. When reading milestones are reached, kids earn ‘badges’ for their Beanstack profile and increase their chances of winning a prize.

How it works –

Register online or at your local public library.
Track your reading using Beanstack or one of our Reading Journals and go in the running to win a prize!
Complete challenges to go in the prize draw!

For more information about the BIG Summer Read, please check our Frequently Asked Questions below.

Key dates -

Pre-registration opens Monday 6 November.

Competition opens: Friday 1 December 2023

Competition closes: Wednesday 31 January 2024

Winners will be notified in February 2024
Local Prizes -

All Myli entries will be eligible for the local prize draw generously donated by local businesses and community groups.

Prize Pack 1:

1x $100 VISA gift card
Book Pack

Prize Pack 2:

1x $100 VISA gift card
Book Pack

Prize Pack 3:

1x $100 VISA gift card
Book Pack

Winners will be drawn in February 2024, and prizes must be picked up from a Myli library branch.

Myli would like to thank Friends of the Leongatha Library and Need 2 Read Bookshop, Warragul for their generous donations.
Statewide Prizes -
This year the statewide prizes are book packs, donated by James Bennett.

There will be winners from four age group categories:
- Ages 0-4
- Ages 5-8
- Ages 8-12
- Ages 12-18
Children who log and read using the Beanstack App will automatically go into the State Wide Prize Draw.
Who can participate?

All children between the ages of 0-18 are welcome to participate! Independent and non-independent readers can log any book they read, that is read to them, or listened to as an audio. We encourage parents and caregivers to continue to read aloud to young people during the summer school holidays and log these books as part of the challenge.

Children under the age of 13 will need their parent’s permission in order to register with Beanstack. Parents can use the Family Account feature to track all of their children’s reading from a single login. Each participating library service may have their own terms and conditions or eligibility criteria for winning prizes so please check with your local library for confirmation.
What is Beanstack?

Beanstack helps to incentivise reading and allows users to keep track of how many books/audiobooks have been read.

A mobile app (also known as Beanstack Tracker) makes this easy with features including a barcode scanner and reading timer.

Download (App Store)

Download (Google Play)

Sign up via Beanstack
How to play -

Account Registration –

To participate in the challenge, users are required to register for an account through the Beanstack site. You can register as an individual or as a family. Children under the age of 13 will need their parent’s permission in order to register with Beanstack. Parents can use the Family Account feature to track all of their children’s reading from a single login.

Registration Badge –

Once the account is set up, participants will be prompted to join the BIG Summer Read challenge. Joining the challenge will unlock the registration badge.

Logging Badges –

In order to complete the challenge, participants need to log 10 books. This can be done any time during the challenge until it closes on 31 January.

Activity Badges –

Participants may also choose to collect activity badges. While we encourage them to do this, they are not a requirement for completion – just a lot of fun!
Do I have to use Beanstack?

A paper tracker can be collected from your local library branch from November 6.

Please note that only participants registered through Beanstack will be eligible for the statewide prize draw. All entries will be eligible for the local prize draw.
Big Summer Read Statewide Terms and Conditions

Participants in the Big Summer Read must be under the age of 18, reside in Victoria and must be able to collect their prize from a specified library branch. Prizes will not be awarded to anyone who does not meet the eligibility criteria.