"Does it even matter how many living things you touched today? Or where they all are now? Welcome to Night Vale."
The Librarians have re-instated the Summer Reading Program, against the wishes of the town council, and are welcoming (kidnapping) children interested in learning. First appearance of Tamika Flynn.
Tropes present in Summer Reading Program include:
- Badass Bookworm: Tamika Flynn has apparently read books impressive for her reading level, and also managed to defeat the librarians and lead the children out of the library.
- Closed Circle: The librarians manage to make the previously installed doors and windows vanish, trapping the children inside and making access impossible. It's strongly implied that time was passing more quickly on the inside than the outside, as well.
- Comically Missing the Point: A group of children are kidnapped by Eldritch Abominations and escape, battered and half-starved, described as almost feral ... and Cecil calls it a victory for literacy, since they were apparently also reading.
- Incompetence, Inc.: "Grab 'Em and Sack 'Em", one of the vigilante squads that had up until this episode been tasked with punishing murderers in Night Vale. Vincent La Farge, the head, admits that he's not sure they've ever actually caught a guilty person; usually they just grab the first person they see. They once actually tried to arrest the corpse of the victim, but it got away.
- Little Miss Badass: 12-year-old Tamika Flynn, who leads the children of the Summer Reading Program to victory against the librarians.
"Today's proverb: A bar walks into a bar. The bartender is a snake eating its own tail. The windows look out only onto the face of the one who looks."
