State Librarian Stacey A. Aldrich congratulated each teen and presented their prize. Teen award-winning vocalist and ukulele performer Karlie Goya offered a Michael Jackson medley as a prelude to the program and also performed during intermission. Radio Personality Lina Girl of Krater 96.3 FM, a devoted library patron, emceed this year’s event.



The finalists participated in the six week Teen Summer Reading Program from June 4th through July 15th. The Library System's information officer Paul H. Mark says, "Since 1992, more than 80,000 participants (grades 6 -12) have read over half-a-million books! To encourage teens to read, this year’s participants were entered into a drawing. Twenty-four Oahu teens were selected to vie in winning exciting “tech gadget” prizes."



The Friends of the Library of Hawaii sponsored the entertainment for the finale at Windward Mall, and is the major sponsor of the annual HSPLS Summer Reading Program for keiki, teens, adults, and kupuna. For the first time, the program was easy to join and log reading minutes from anywhere, any time, and with any smart device- because it was online. The Library System says this year, more than 13,600 participants read for more than 11.6 million minutes.