The Harlan County Public Library is preparing this year’s Summer Reading Program, to be held at all three of the county’s public libraries.

According to Harlan County Public Library Director Richard Haynes, the theme for this installment of the program is “Libraries Rock.”

“Every year, we have a summer reading program,” Haynes said. “We generally stick with the state’s theme, this year it’s Libraries Rock.”

Haynes explained the purpose of the program is to involve children with the library and help them retain their reading skills through the summer.

“It will start on June 7 and will end on July 5, with the final program on July 13,” Haynes said. “That’s six programs in total.”

He pointed out each of the three Harlan County Libraries, including the Bryan W. Whitfield Jr. Public Library in Harlan, the Rebecca Caudill Public Library in Cumberland and the Evarts Public Library will offer the program.

“Each week, we’ll have a different music related theme, including Musical Instruments, Music Around the World, Sounds of Nature, Styles of Music and Science in Music,” Haynes said. “For our finale this year we’ll have Animal Tales, which is a company that comes in with wild animals.”

Children from birth to 18 are welcome, but the program focuses on pre-school and early school age children, Haynes said.

The Summer Reading Program will be on Thursdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at the Harlan and Evarts libraries, with the Cumberland program taking place the following Tuesdays.

“You get prizes for signing up, you’ll get a little prize bag with some coupons and some little toys at the end of the program if you read 10 or more books,” Haynes said. “We enjoy helping the kids keep their reading up, but it’s things they choose to read and that they have fun reading so it’s very enjoyable for them.”