Lufkin ISD students<\/a> in third through eighth grade score below the state average in reading.<\/p>\nKurth Memorial Library Program Director Maren Metzner said the library is aware of the declining rates and is working to address them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are aware and we are trying to combat that with the summer reading program,\u201d Metzner said.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s program features a group challenge, encouraging kids to read in an engaging way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year we are having a group challenge. So, the kids are challenging the adults, and the adults are challenging the kids and they\u2019re trying to beat last year\u2019s records and they\u2019re trying to beat each other,\u201d Metzner said.<\/p>\n
Metzner said low literacy rates carry long-term consequences beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt affects our workforce, and without people who can\u2019t read effectively or can\u2019t read at all, our workforce goes down, and we are looking for highly skilled workers who do multiple and high-level thinking,\u201d Metzner said.<\/p>\n
She said the solution can start with a single book.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like that it\u2019s low, but all it takes is one book to bring them back. That one favorite book,\u201d Metzner said.<\/p>\n
Metzner encouraged parents to build a nightly reading routine at home and to make reading feel like a game to keep children engaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne book at a time, one reading session at a time, whether it\u2019s a parent reading to the child or a child reading to the parent, or just practicing reading by themselves, or reading to a stuffed animal, reading to a pet \u2014 that counts,\u201d Metzner said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KTRE. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUFKIN, Texas \u2014 Kurth Memorial Library is working to address a national literacy crisis that data shows is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5614,138298,138299,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-393007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crisis","tag-kurth-memorial-library","tag-lieracy","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}