Adult Summer Library Badge Book Challenge 2026

 

Want to plan out your badges before you enter your activities in Beanstack? Here’s a list of all the activities for the 2026 Badge Book Adult Summer Library Challenge! You’ll need to complete one activity for each badge to earn the badge, and you’ll need to earn seven total badges to complete the challenge.

Just want to read, read, and read some more? Try the Bookworm Challenge instead!

Unearth a good time

Fun & Games

  • Read or listen to a funny book.
  • Enjoy a book or movie that features sports or games.
  • Read or listen to a book set in one of the cities hosting the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.
  • Watch a funny movie, a comedy special, a season of a funny show, or listen to a funny podcast.
  • Take part in the Library’s Hometown Week Treasure Hunt or find a local geocache.
  • Play a new game.
  • Go to a live sports event (parks and rec events count!).
  • Put together a jigsaw puzzle.
  • Do a crossword, word search, sudoku, or other puzzle every day for a week.
  • Tell the librarians a joke.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own activity that features fun and games.
Unearth a little chaos

Butterfly Effect

  • Embrace the chaos! Pick out a book or movie that you know absolutely nothing about and start it without reading the description.
  • Let someone influence your actions. Ask someone else for a recommendation (book, movie, show, food, etc) and try out whatever they recommend.
  • Let others know how their actions led to a positive change. Send a message to someone who made a difference in your life.
  • Spend at least an hour helping out in your community.
  • Do something to make another person’s day better.
  • Do something to help you meet new people in your community.
  • Save a fossil (fuel) and impact the future. Spend a day getting around without using your own car.
  • After careful consideration, decide to endorse this park: leave at least three positive reviews of a good read, stellar business, fantastic purchase, excellent employee, or other resource.
  • Have a say in your community! Participate in local government or contact someone who represents you.
  • Have a conversation about your different experiences with someone from a different background.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own activity to cause ripples of change (and a little chaos) around you.
Unearth a story

Library Time

  • Attend a library program.
  • Convince someone to do the Summer Library Challenge with you.
  • Follow or tag the Library on social media, share a post from the Library, or sign up for the Library email newsletter.
  • Read or listen to a book belonging to a library that’s not your usual library.
  • Send a postcard to the Library (225 W Main St, Platteville WI 53818) from your summer adventures!
  • Use a Library resource that isn’t a book, such as an electronic database, microfilm reader, meeting rooms, kits, or more.
  • Read or listen to a book from a display at a library.
  • Read for an hour in a location where you don’t usually read.
  • Read or listen to a book that you’ve been meaning to read for more than 12 months.
  • Take or leave a book at a Little Free Library.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own library-related activity.
Unearth an adventure

Challenge Yourself

  • Try something new: enjoy a book or movie that came out in the last 12 months.
  • Give someone new a chance: read or listen to a book by a debut author or watch a movie from a first-time director.
  • Read or listen to a book that scares you or watch a movie that scares you.
  • Read or listen to a book that has been challenged somewhere.
  • Finish something that’s been on your to-do list for over a month.
  • Watch a movie or TV series in a language that you don’t speak.
  • The future is an adventure: do something to plan ahead, such as making or updating your will or powers of attorney, creating a budget, updating your résumé, or reviewing financial goals.
  • Get ready for a fun adventure: start (or update!) your bucket list for this summer, this year, or even further into the future. Make a plan for checking something off the list.
  • Be prepared for a not-so-fun adventure: assemble an emergency preparedness kit, restock your first aid kit, review your tornado and fire plans, or do something else that would help you survive if you were in a dystopian novel.
  • Do something that scares you.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own activity that challenges you.
Unearth an experiment

Science & Tech

  • Read or listen to a book that involves science or technology in some way.
  • Read or listen to a nonfiction book.
  • Watch a scientific documentary or TED Talk.
  • Learn an interesting fact.
  • Look for modern-day dinosaurs: learn to identify a new-to-you bird (or plant, mineral, or other animal).
  • Try some kitchen chemistry! Try a new recipe, ingredient, or cooking technique.
  • Set up your own experiment or taste test to determine the best brand of one of your frequently used/consumed products.
  • Do some technology housecleaning! Run updates, organize your email, unsubscribe to email lists, unfollow social media accounts, clean out your downloads, or sort your saved documents.
  • Read the manual or watch a video for something you own and learn how to fix it or use it more effectively.
  • Check out an ebook, audiobook, or magazine from the Library using the Libby app or OverDrive website.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own scientific activity.
Unearth the outdoors

Flora & Fauna

  • Read or listen to a book that features a plant, animal, or another natural element.
  • Watch a movie or documentary that features a plant, animal, or another natural element.
  • Read or listen to a book outside for an hour.
  • Plant something (inside or outside).
  • Do something kind or helpful for an animal.
  • Walk like a dinosaur: take a walk or bike ride without bringing any electronic devices.
  • Spend at least 15 hours outside over a 7-day period.
  • Cook something outside.
  • Watch out for asteroids! Do something outside at night: go on a night hike, learn to identify new constellations, watch for shooting stars, have a bonfire, or create your own outdoors nighttime activity.
  • Help Wisconsin animals! Participate in a Citizen Science project to monitor wildlife.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own outdoors activity.
Unearth the past

Dig Into History

  • Do something to commemorate America250.
  • Read or listen to a book that involves time travel or multiple time periods.
  • Learn about a historical event that you knew nothing about.
  • Enjoy a book or movie that came out in the 1900s.
  • Visit a historical museum or site.
  • Research your family history or look into an interesting story from Platteville’s past.
  • Read, watch, or do something that you enjoyed as a child.
  • Go through your old photos, either in print or on your camera roll.
  • Make a time capsule or write a letter to the future.
  • Help preserve history by volunteering as a Citizen Archivist.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own history-based activity.
Unearth your creativity

Art & Music

  • Read or listen to a fiction book or graphic novel.
  • Watch a concert or theater production.
  • Finish an art or craft project.
  • Write a poem, song, short story, essay, or your own lyrics to your favorite dinosaur movie soundtrack.
  • Try a new creative activity or learn a new skill for a hobby you already do.
  • Makeover, mend, or repair something you own or make something that you would normally purchase.
  • Make music together: jam with a group, sing with a choir, go out for karaoke, or make music with others in your own way.
  • Create a playlist for a specific purpose, person, or mood.
  • Listen to an entire album that you haven’t heard before.
  • Experience a work of art.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own activity that showcases your creativity.
Unearth your own backyard

Friends & Neighbors

  • Read or listen to a book with a Midwest connection.
  • Watch a movie with a Midwest connection.
  • Read a local newspaper or a regional magazine cover to cover.
  • Support a locally owned business.
  • Eat something grown locally.
  • Plan a special activity with a friend or family member.
  • Do something to connect with your neighbors.
  • Explore what the glaciers missed out on! Go somewhere in the Driftless where you’ve never been or haven’t been in at least two years (a park, a store, a restaurant, the top of the M, etc.)
  • Read the same book or watch the same movie and discuss it with someone else.
  • Connect with someone you haven’t talked to in a while.
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own activity that strengthens your relationships within your immediate or wider community.
Unearth yourself

Be Well

  • Read or listen to a book that makes you feel better physically, mentally, or emotionally.
  • Watch a movie or show that makes you feel better physically, mentally, or emotionally.
  • Exercise your mind: read or listen to a book with a mystery in it.
  • Do something to move your body: walk, have a dance party, try a wellness class, garden, stretch your body, etc.
  • Take life at dinosaur speed: deliberately do something at a slower pace.
  • Dedicate time to a project that you want to do for yourself.
  • Feel better about your surroundings. Reorganize, rearrange, declutter, or clean out something in your house.
  • Make your own Ice Age: creatively cool down without using the air conditioning in your home.
  • Eat like a “veggie-saurus”: try a new plant-based recipe, take the 30-plant challenge, or incorporate plants into your meal in a different way.
  • Give yourself a compliment!
  • Choose your own adventure! Create your own activity that makes you feel better physically, mentally, or emotionally.
How’s it going?

Survey Says!

  • Finished your Summer Library Challenge and want to tell us how it went? Didn’t finish and want to tell us why? Fill out our short survey.