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Children visiting the Demopolis Public Library between now and April 2024 can wield their reading skills to earn collectable dragon cards as part of an initiative called Reading Dragons and Friends. As of Sept. 26, children can register for the new reading program and receive their first set of cards.

Reading Dragons and Friends is a reading incentive program for school-age children that rewards them for reading with collectable cards featuring dragons, griffins, and unicorns.

To earn cards, participants must get a tracker from the librarian and mark a colored square that represents 30 minutes of reading. There are four color-coded rows of squares on the tracker for each month. Completing a row will earn participants four matching cards featuring the egg, baby, teen, and adult variations of the mythical creature they choose.

Children’s Librarian Sandra Dickie said that she and her staff first noticed the Reading Dragons and Friends program on the librarian programming page and felt like it was a great incentive to keep kids reading during the school year.

“We’ve been trying to think of ideas to get them in more during the school year. So the program will be like our summer reading program. It will be something to draw the kids into the library,” said Dickie.

Assistant Librarian Annie Ward said the program was created by a woman in Ohio to encourage kids to continue reading outside of summer reading programs. The Reading Dragons and Friends program was inspired by the Pokémon Trading Card Game and runs from September to April.

Ward said that there are games the kids can play with the cards as well.

“The cards are color coded as red, green and blue. The kids can play Rock, Paper, Scissors or Rock, Paper, Scissors, War,” said Ward.

To play Rock, Paper, Scissors, two players choose one card each from their collection and then reveal it to see who wins. The rules of the game say that red beats green, green beats blue, and blue beats red. If both players choose the same color card it’s a tie. Rock, Paper, Scissors, War is similar but has more cards. The rules of this game say if players choose the same color, whoever has the oldest creature wins. If the creatures are the same age, the players go to war.

Dickie said that if there is enough interest, the library might consider hosting a tournament during the holidays or spring break to promote the program.

To register for the program, kids and parents can visit the library to fill out a form, pick up a tracker, and get their first starter pack of cards.