Correction
The print version of this story spelled Brenna Wallace's name as "Brennan."
St. Albert student readers will dive beneath the waves next week as the city library’s summer reading game sails into port.
St. Albert-area youths will start their quest to save the oceans from the claws of C.R.A.B. this June 28 as the St. Albert Public Library launches its 42nd annual summer reading game.
“Practice makes perfect,” library children’s services co-ordinator Ashley King said of reading, and students can lose a full grade-level of skill if they stop reading over the two-month summer break.
King said the summer reading game is meant to encourage Grade 1 to 6 students to keep reading during July and August using the promise of mini-games and prizes. Participants also get a free book courtesy of the McCoy Foundation. Some 1,700 youths took part last year, and she predicted even more would sign on to this summer’s voyage.
C.R.A.B. versus W.A.V.E.
Brenna Wallace was one of the six library artisans who came up with this year’s game, which, as usual, comes with an elaborate set and storyline.
This year’s game is called Explorers of the Deep and involves a magic pearl, Wallace said. The evil organization C.R.A.B. (Creating Riches and Acting Badly) tried to seize the pearl, but shattered it in the process. Doing so has allowed C.R.A.B. to put mind-control helmets on area starfishes, making them their spies.
Players have been drafted by the secret agency W.A.V.E. (Working Against Villainous Evildoers) to explore the ocean’s depths aboard a submarine to find the pieces of the pearl and thwart C.R.A.B.’s machinations. They will also have to try and spot mind-controlled starfishes hidden in the library to free them from C.R.A.B.’s control.
Wallace said she and the other designers started work on this year’s game on June 5. They have since designed seven different rooms, each with its own animal mascot, for players to complete various challenges in before they get their next reading assignments.
“This one over here is the Kraken’s Hideaway,” Wallace said of one pirate-themed area, which features a big happy pink-and-purple kraken named Oswald and a googly-eyed shark wearing a pirate’s hat.
Other rooms at the downtown library location include a deep-sea area with smoke burbling from hydrothermal vents, the ruins of a mermaid civilization now occupied by Jilly the bespectacled jellyfish, and an arctic-themed zone with icebergs and walruses. Keen-eyed players might spot six penguins in that last area, Wallace said — representations of this year’s library game staffers. Jensen Lakes players will get to explore Turtle Cove.
Wallace said players will get to attempt two different challenges each week in these theme rooms, finding pearl pieces as they do so. The game’s final challenge will likely see players reassemble the magic pearl, the pieces of which will be produced with a 3D printer.
King said older students can try out the Sunken Cities game on the second floor, where they will have to solve puzzles linked to actual sunken cities to find the missing Dr. Nopera. Adults who want to gamify their reading can spin the wheel of mystery books.
King said this year’s ocean theme gives youths a chance to explore a world far removed from their backyards.
“We don’t really have oceans here in Alberta, but the health of the ocean still affects us.”
The summer reading game runs from June 28 to Aug. 20. Visit srg.sapl.ca for details.
