KIDS BECOME SUMMER READING WINNERS!

July: Team Read: 10th Summer Reading Challenge launches

Good news for parents. Libraries across the UK are on their marks and getting set to keep children active and reading throughout the school summer holidays with the 2008 Summer Reading Challenge™.

The Summer Reading Challenge is an immensely popular and successful reading initiative. Now in its tenth year it reaches 650,000 children annually through the UK library network. It is created and run by The Reading Agency, the independent charity working to get more reading to more people.

Each year the Summer Reading Challenge to children is simple. They’re encouraged to read six or more books of their choice during the holidays with collectable incentives and rewards, plus a certificate or medal for every child who completes the Challenge.

Children can sign up at their local library from 21 July (from 27 June in Scotland) and all materials are absolutely free.

In this Olympic year the Challenge has a sports theme: it’s called Team Read and offers a range of sporty activities and incentives to spur children on to the finishing line!

An interactive Team Read website will launch in June (www.teamread.co.uk), linking children with top authors and illustrators, and giving them space to talk about their favourite books and to share reading ideas.

"Our research shows that children really enjoy taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge," says Lynne Taylor, Summer Reading Challenge project manager for The Reading Agency. "It’s a great way to keep them entertained over the holidays, but more importantly, we know that children who take part read more books and read more widely than those who don’t, with potentially life-changing results".

Founded in 2002, The Reading Agency is an independent charity and reading development agency. It aims to get more reading to more people and is passionate about everyone having an equal chance to become areader. For more general information, please visit: www.readingagency.org.uk

Importance of reading for pleasure for children’s life chances: Reading for Change, OECD, 2002. This showed that students who were more enthusiastic about and engaged in reading performed better in tests, and that being a frequent reader was more of an advantage, on its own, than wealth or social status.

Summer Reading Challenge research: Inspiring Children: The Impact of the Summer Reading Challenge, 2003 and Summer Reading Challenge 2006: Impact Research (both available to download from www.readingagency.org.uk), show how libraries can inspire children’s love of reading, widen their reading horizons and build their creativity.

It’s time to stop reading. It’s time to get someone else to start.