Washington Reads is the Washington State Library's statewide program to promote reading for all Washington residents. The State Library sponsors various projects and collaborates with libraries, schools, and other agencies to encourage reading.
In an effort to reduce printing costs the current Washington Reads posters, bookmark and bibliography have been made available as Adobe PDF files for your use. If you do not already have the Adobe Acrobat Reader software you can download it for free at
http://get.adobe.com/reader/ Thank you.
We now have three sizes that the poster will be available in: letter, legal and tabloid. The bibliography will only be offered in letter size and bookmarks will be offered one way as well, four bookmarks to a sheet, letter size.
Washington Reads
Click here to see and order posters highlighting readers throughout Washington. The most recent posters feature skiers Phil, Andy, and Steve Mahre and Billy Frank Jr., member of the Nisqually Tribe and Chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.
National Book Festival
Washington State Library has participated in the National Book Festival since 2003. Each state chooses a book about the state or which takes place in the state to highlight for the book festivals.
Washington State National Book Festival Selections:
2009 - Jacob Lawrence: American Scenes, American Struggles by Nancy Shroyer Howard
2008 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2007 - Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
2006 - Eagle Boy: A Pacific Northwest Native Tale Retold by Richard Lee Vaughan
2005 - Where Do I Sleep?: A Pacific Northwest Lullaby by Jennifer Blomgren
2004 - Seaman’s Journal: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark by Patti Reeder Eubanks
2003 - Ghost Canoe by Will Hobbs
2002 & 2001 - Washington did not participate.
Washington Reads – themed book lists about Washington
Lists of good books about Washington for all ages on themes selected by the Washington State Librarian.
Letters About Literature
Letters About Literature encourages young readers to write letters to the authors of a book they enjoyed reading. Washington State Library sponsors this annual competition at the state level.
Washington Reading Blog
The Washington Reading Blog is no longer active. The blog began three years as a pilot project to explore the potential uses of blogs in libraries as a communication tool. The State Library promoted the pilot to schools and libraries for middle school students in conjunction with summer reading program.
Blogs have become a mainstay of the web 2.0 world as evidenced by their exponential growth – the State Library considers the three year pilot successful and is moving on to other projects. We regret any inconvenience this may cause our users.
For more reading and literacy promotion materials from the Washington State Library, please visit: http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/libraries/projects/marketing/