DOWAGIAC — With heavy snowfall and wickedly cold temperatures awaiting residents outside, winter is the perfect time for people to escape to and explore a new part of the world.

Some say here is no easier way to do so than to flip through the pages of a good book.

To help keep local imaginations flowing through these chilly, windy days, the staff of the Dowagiac District Library is organizing a winter reading program, which will kick off Monday and run through Saturday, Feb. 17. The program is open to children, teenagers and adults.

During the course of the program, people may stop into the library, located downtown at 211 Commercial St., and pick up a slip of paper from one of the circulation desks. On the form, visitors can write their name and the title/author of the last book they completed, which the staff will then collect.

Each completed form will be entered into one of three drawings — one for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, one for teenagers in sixth through 12th grade and one for adults — which will be conducted at the end of each week of the program.

Prizes will include small winter or reading-themed trinkets, such as bookmarks or reading lights, said Melissa Phillips, youth services coordinator with the library.

Winners do not have to be present at the drawing to win, Phillips said.

The upcoming reading program is the counterpart to the one organized by library staff in the summer.

While the summer program is more extensive in terms of prizes, the winter version is open to all ages, so parents and older siblings can join in the fun as well.

“[The winter program] gives guests a reason to come to the library, and find a book they can take home and curl up with on a cold night,” Phillips said.

Phillips, who has been with the Dowagiac District Library since August 2017, when on her first day, helped out with the viewing of the solar eclipse outside, is organizing the winter reading program alongside Director Matt Weston. With many guests stopping in this season to use of the computers, pick up a movie or just get out of the cold for a while, the program gives the library’s reading lovers an added motivation to brave the weather and book it downtown this winter.

For those guests who do visit for the other amenities, Phillips hopes that the reading program will give them a reason to check out the thousands of fiction and nonfiction books lining the shelves of the library’s adult and children’s areas, she said.

“I think people are amazed at the number of new books we get,” she said. “We keep up with everything. If someone is looking for a new release, we usually have it for them.”

For more information, people may call the Dowagiac District Library at (269) 782-3826 or visit dowagiacdl.org.