The school in which this research project took place, Papatoetoe Central, was concerned about research evidence that indicated students' reading achievement dropped after long summer breaks. This drop in achievement, known as "the summer effect", has been reported in schools in New Zealand and internationally (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2007; Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2010; McNaughton, Jesson, & Kolose, 2012). Papatoetoe Central, a decile 4 school, is situated in a low income urban area in South Auckland; its student population comprises 9 percent Maori, 14 percent Pasifika, 51 percent Indian, and 18 percent Chinese, with the remainder European New Zealanders and other ethnicities. The project focused on enhancing students' reading enjoyment and engagement. Greater reading engagement and more positive attitudes to reading have been shown to result from students reading for pleasure g (e.g., Cremin, 2010). It was decided to focus on Year 5 students, who would be making the transition to Year 6 after the summer break. Year 6 would be their last year in primary school, after which they would enter intermediate school (Years 7 and 8), where attitudes to reading have been shown to drop markedly (National Education Monitoring Project, 2000, 2004, 2008). The project's aim was, therefore, to develop and investigate a collaborative community-based programme to address the summer slide through integrating the diverse experiences and resources of the principal, teachers, students, and whanau of Papatoetoe Central School; the librarians at the Papatoetoe Library, the local public library; and the local community, all working with a university researcher consultant. The purpose of the summer reading programme was thus to contextualise a programme for the students at Papatoetoe Central.