Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) launched a new application for students and their families to track their reading and foster a love for literature as it aims to have 2.6 million minutes read this academic year.
The application “Mad for Reading” is part of an overall initiative started last year to mobilize Madison to support and celebrate MMSD students’ reading. New to the campaign is the addition of its application and a target goal of 2.6 million minutes read across the entire district. It hopes to engage students with the app, curated book lists for all grade levels and encourage them to become lifelong readers.
“Our goal is simple: to get students reading more and enjoying it,” said Maegan Heindel, MMSD’s library services coordinator. “By providing all kinds of literacy connections and entry points, we’re helping kids discover and read what they love while building a lifelong habit.”
Mad for Reading is part of a larger effort to foster literacy among students. In Wisconsin, a push for change in curriculum to implement the “Science of Reading” — passed through Act 20 in 2023 — to tackle issues in reading proficiency. Full funding for Act 20 only recently received full funding in the 2025-27 state budget, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
At MMSD, it looks to build an entire culture of literature through its initiatives like Mad for Reading, events and author visits in collaboration with the Wisconsin Book Festival.
“When we look at the essential building blocks of the Science of reading that helps students learn how to read, it’s encompassed by an environment and a culture of excitement about reading, love of reading, choice and access, interest and relevance,” Heindel said.
The target 2.6 million minutes read is a goal of 100 minutes for each of MMSD’s about 26,000 students. Any reading counts from fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, articles, audiobooks or being read to by a teacher or family member.
Curated lists for celebratory months have been created with books ranging from picture books to options geared towards high school students.
Examples for its Hispanic Heritage Month book suggestions include titles like “Lola Levine is not mean!” by Monica Brown, “Mango, Abuelle, and Me,” by Meg Medina, “They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems” by David Bowles, “Dominicana” by Angie Cruz and many more.
The selection of books starts with a group of MMSD librarians who have a passion for curating lists for students. The lists were initially created last year and are always being updated.
“As librarians, a lot of us have stories of students who weren’t motivated to read, and then they found the right book. They maybe didn’t realize that there was a book on something that they were interested in,” Heindel said. “I hope that we can provide that through some of the suggested books.”
Also, MMSD pulls from the Children’s Cooperative Book Center. The organization housed in UW-Madison that Heindel calls a “local gem.” It is a world-renowned children and young adult research library that serves as a gathering place for books, ideas and expertise in the field of children’s and young adult literature.
Features on the application have access to the curated lists, challenges, a social media aspect to see what friends are reading, your reading streak, leaderboards, recommendations, book reviews, book log and classroom library.
The app also shows how other schools are currently faring. On the app, you can see how many minutes each school and grade has read.
The Mad for Reading app is currently live. Students can access it at school or at home via iOS and Android. Log-ins using the student’s Classlink username to connect to the service.
