100 Books Before Graduation

100 Books Before Grad­u­a­tion is a read­ing chal­lenge for stu­dents ages 13 to 18. You are chal­lenged to read 100 books of your choice and to write 10 (short but thought­ful) book reviews. If you com­plete the chal­lenge, you will receive prizes and major brag­ging rights! Read­ing for fun will bring so much joy and depth to your life, and we want to encour­age you to do more of it!

Go to dekalbli​brary​.beanstack​.org! If you do not already have a Beanstack account, you can make one and then reg­is­ter for the chal­lenge. You can also down­load the Beanstack Track­er app on any mobile device to reg­is­ter and log your books.

Stu­dents ages 13 to 18 can begin their 100 Books jour­ney. At the time you sign up, you will have until age 18 to fin­ish the chal­lenge. This may be short­er for some and longer for oth­ers, but con­sid­er it part of the challenge!

It’s a marathon, not a sprint! If you are sign­ing up at age 13, you will have at least 4 years to com­plete the chal­lenge. Remem­ber that you can include audio­books, graph­ic nov­els, and man­ga. Enjoy the process, find books you love to read, and have fun.

We’re not ask­ing for a book report! Just let us know what you liked about the book, what you didn’t like, who was your favorite char­ac­ter, were you shocked by that end­ing, will you read the sequel, etc. One full para­graph with five com­plete sen­tences will do.

There is no required list of books to read, but we do have a fan­tas­tic list of rec­om­men­da­tions here. We encour­age you to read books that are appro­pri­ate for your age and to read across gen­res and for­mats. Chal­lenge your­self, but also have fun! E‑books and audio­books count! Graph­ic nov­els and man­ga count! Want to read Moby Dick? Go for it, but remem­ber it only counts as one book.

Yes! You can down­load a log to print out if you pre­fer paper. Down­load print­able logs for 100 Books Before Grad­u­a­tion.

No, while we encour­age re-read­ing your favorites, this chal­lenge will require you to read 100 dif­fer­ent books.

No, for this chal­lenge, every­one starts from the point they sign up.

Yes, if you have read at least half of the book and have writ­ten a review explain­ing why you did­n’t like it. There are so many great books out there and we do not want to force you to read one you do not enjoy!

Yes, manda­to­ry read­ing counts as well as read­ing for fun.

The 100 Books Before Grad­u­a­tion Chal­lenge prizes include: a draw­ing jour­nal, a book light, an insu­lat­ed mug, a book of choice, and a very exclu­sive enam­el pin. Prizes will be award­ed through­out the cal­en­dar year, as you reach the book bench­marks. After you com­plete the chal­lenge, you will be entered into a draw­ing for an iPad Pro! All prizes for the 100 Books Before Grad­u­a­tion Chal­lenge are pro­vid­ed by the DeKalb Library Foundation.

20 books: Draw­ing journal

50 books: Book light

80 books: Insu­lat­ed mug

100 books: Book of choice, exclu­sive enam­el pin, and an entry into the prize drawing!

Wow, way to go! You may cer­tain­ly con­tin­ue read­ing and log­ging your books, but you will only receive the prizes one time. Make sure you are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the oth­er Beanstack read­ing chal­lenges through­out the year!