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SUMMER CHALLENGE 2025
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Summer Task Ideas
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The United States National Park System is a vast network of protected areas managed by the National Park Service (NPS), a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Interior. It encompasses over 430 units, including national parks, monuments, historical sites, and other designations, covering over 85 million acres across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories. The NPS's mission is to preserve the natural and cultural resources of these areas for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of current and future generations. Read a book with the letters N P S in the title.
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Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, a national park in Idaho, contains the largest concentration of Hagerman Horse fossils in North America.
Read a book set it Idaho or with a horse on the cover.
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The Gettysburg National Military Park protects and interprets the landscape of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought over three days between July 1 and July 3, 1863, during the American Civil War.
Read a book with MPG War or Military Fiction
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Vatnajokull National Park, Iceland
The largest national park in Europe, Vatnajokull combines thick blue ice caves, black sand beaches, waterfalls, and even lush green fields to create an otherworldly landscape
Read a book set in Iceland
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Northeast Greenland National Park
The largest national park in the world
Northeast Greenland National Park is a gigantic nature reserve covering 375,000 square miles in the remote northeastern quarter of Greenland. In the absence of people, wildlife abounds. And with some luck, you might see iconic Arctic species like musk oxen and polar bears.
Read a large book -- over 500 pages
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Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia
One of the natural wonders of the world, Uluru is a massive dome of red sandstone that seems to rise directly from the desert landscape. Uluru is a deeply spiritual site for the Anangu people. The caves here are filled with remarkable rock art in vivid shades of red, yellow, and brown that date back at least 10,000 years.
Read a book with 3 Us in the title.
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Dinosaur National Monument - CO,UT
150 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed here. Their fossils are still embedded in the rocks.
Read a book with a dinosaur or dinosaur fossil on the cover.
I've had a lot of fun choosing books that fit Angela IL's 50p Spring task. I'd love if we could see some flavors of its subtasks next season - or a regular 5/10/15p, why not. How about "I know what you read last Summer"? A book somebody read for a particular task in the Summer '24 challenge (along with post number).
I'm also keen on reading past group reads - so maybe any book off the group's shelf from a past challenge, or another book by an author on the group's shelf?
The first day of summer arrives with the solstice this year on Friday, June 20, 2025, 10:42 p.m. EDT - or 2:42 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)Publication dates, page numbers, series numbers found in the summer solstice date and time (each reader could use the time for where they live)
Author initials in SUMMER SOLSTICE.
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For National Park System, something about John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.
The National Park Service maintains a page of quotations by him: https://www.nps.gov/jomu/learn/histor.... Not sure how these could be used - maybe find a word of 4 letters or more from a quotation of his in a book title?
Pick a national park from the nps website https://www.nps.gov/index.htm. Read 2 books - 1 with all letters of a park name in the title/series/author. Park name must be at least 2 words, you can use all letters of title/series/author once each.
2nd book - for the another park, use its address (street number and zipcode). Find publication date of book in those numbers.
Roxana wrote: "I've had a lot of fun choosing books that fit Angela IL's 50p Spring task. I'd love if we could see some flavors of its subtasks next season - or a regular 5/10/15p, why not. How about "I know wh..."
I like this idea
Roxana wrote: "I've had a lot of fun choosing books that fit Angela IL's 50p Spring task. I'd love if we could see some flavors of its subtasks next season - or a regular 5/10/15p, why not. How about "I know wh..."
I like this idea too
Let's honor the only US state that doesn't have a national park, Delaware, by reading a book set in Delaware. For a 2 book option, read a book set in the state(s) with the most visited national park - Great Smokey - set in Tennessee and North Caroline and one book set in the state with the least visited national park - Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve - set in Alaska.
Yellowstone was the very first national park created in the world. Read a book where the author's initials can be found in Yellowstone.
Serengeti National Park in Tanzania has all of the Big Five: lions, buffalo, leopards, elephants, and rhinos plus giraffes and zebra. Read a book with any of these animals on the cover.
I was trying to think of a clever task around this idea, but I'm coming up short, so I'll just say: Follow the NPS Instagram account. whoever does these posts is genius and a comedian, and they are hilarious. Maybe it's true on other social media forms as well, but I can't vouch for those since I don't use them. But, NPS Instagram is always good for a laugh.
Jen B wrote: "I was trying to think of a clever task around this idea, but I'm coming up short, so I'll just say: Follow the NPS Instagram account. whoever does these posts is genius and a comedian, and they are..."their facebook is pretty good too -easpecially with the lego pictures
California's Sequoia National Park is home to the largest living single-stem tree in the world, the wonderfully named General Sherman. The tree is approximately 275 feet tall and weighs approximately 1,900 metric tons- read a book that is "approximately 275pgs" (for the purpose of the task that could be between 265-285pgs
- 1900 metric tons - read a book where first year published has at least 2 of the numbers in it
Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas is the smallest national park - read a book less thatn 150pgs
Death Valley National Park is the largest national park in the lower 48 U.S. states - read a book that is 500+pgs
(could combine small and large into a 15 point 2 book task)
Mount McKinley in the Alaska Range of Denali National Park is the highest point in the national parks at 20,302 fee - read a book with a mountain(s) on the cover
Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida is known for its world-renowned concentration of turtles - read a book where all the letters of TURTLE can be found in title
The smallest national park unit is part of a part of an acre in downtown Philadelphia, the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial - read a book where authors initials can be found in Thaddeus Kosciuszko
Both Lincoln and Roosevelt (Teddy) have 4 historic sites named after them - read a book with 4 words in the title or that is 4th in series
Seneca Falls National Park in New York is the location of the First Women’s Rights Conventions, which discussed expanding rights of women in the mid-19th century. - read a book with women/gender as a MPG genre
The National Park of American Samoa is the only National Park Service site south of the equator. It covers 13,500 total acres: 9,500 land acres and 4,000 marine acres, which are mostly coral reefs. - read a book set in a country that is south of the equator
Bears have not killed a single person in Olympic National Park, but a mountain goat, which is not a native species to the region, killed a man in 2010. - umm I got nothing - but that has to be a task somehow...
Pinnacles National Park in California was designated on January 10, 2013 and is America's newest national park -read a book published in 2013
Roxana wrote: "I've had a lot of fun choosing books that fit Angela IL's 50p Spring task. I'd love if we could see some flavors of its subtasks next season - or a regular 5/10/15p, why not. How about "I know wh..."
Love the idea of "I know what you read last summer."
Summer is all about the BEACH for my family. Option 1: Read a book from Summer Beach Reads List https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Option 2: Read a book with beach intact in title
Option 3: Read a book with beach on the cover (must include sand and water)
Option 4: Read a book where authors initials can be found in Beach Reads
Summertime is Here Option 1: Read a book from Summer Reads lists. State year used. https://best-books.publishersweekly.c...
Option 2: School is out, but new college students have summer reading lists. Read a book from the Berkley Summer Reading List
https://www.listchallenges.com/uc-ber...
Option 3: Summer Vacations are on every one's list whether it is a day trip or a week long getaway. Read a book where main character is on vacation.
Option 4: Summer is HOT in most places . Read a book where the letters HOT are consecutive in the title.
Summertime Picnics and BBQsOption 1 Read a book that shows a picnic on the cover
Option 2: Read a book where all the letters of Picnic are in the title
Option 3: Depending on where you live a BBQ can just be cooking outdoors, or slow roasting a pig. In NC it is definitely a slow roasted pig, shredded with either tomato based (western NC) or vinegar based (Eastern NC) added in. In Texas, it is all about the beef!. Read a book where the author's initials can be found in COWPIGBBQ
Option 4: Every state is its BEST BBQ but these were listed as some of the best. Read a book located in one of the states on the 32 Best BBQ Restaurants in America https://www.timeout.com/usa/restauran...
Summer Solstice/LithaLitha marks the middle of summer, hence the name Midsummer. It has the most hours of daylight out of any other day in the year. The word solstice translates roughly to “sun stands still”, and refers to the appearance of the sun hanging endlessly in the sky during this time. As a result of the extended daylight hours, midsummer nights are subsequently the shortest.
Option 1: Read a LONG book over 400 pages that has a light colored cover
Option 2: Read a SHORT book under 300 pages that has a dark cover.
Option 3: Read a book with a Sun on the cover (can be realistic or stylized
Option 4: Litha is a time to concentrate and work on personal growth. Read a self-help book.
My home state of NC has several National Parks and Historic SitesOption 1 Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail (AT) is a world-renowned hiking trail that meanders through woodlands, pastures, and farmland for 2190 miles, from North Georgia to Maine.
Read a book from the Appalachian Fiction List https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Option 2 Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850
Read a book with MPG Native American
Option 3 Kitty Hawk Wind, sand, and a dream of flight brought Wilbur and Orville Wright to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where, after four years of scientific experimentation, they achieved the first successful airplane flights on December 17, 1903.
Read a book where Authors initials are found in KITTY HAWK
Option 4 Guilford County Courthouse and Fort Raleigh National Park were both prominent battlegrounds during the revolutionary war. Read a book that takes place during this time frame 1775-1783
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The bonus theme is It's A Wonderful World: National Parks
As in past challenges some tasks may revolve around the seasonal theme of Summer. Others may reflect the bonus theme. Other tasks may have nothing to do with either of those themes, they’re just fun or unique ideas to stimulate your reading.
Feel free to post as many ideas as you can come up with. Don’t worry about repeating what someone else has might have already suggested. The more ideas, the better!
The moderators will draw from these ideas as well as their own to create the 5, 10 and 15 point tasks. This thread will be open for ideas until May 15 . Summer tasks will begin to be posted on May 20. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!