Summer Reading Challenge
The Summer Reading Challenge is a flagship library success story. It focuses on reading for pleasure, and involves 97% of UK local authorities.
We co-ordinate The Summer Reading Challenge and it is organised locally by public library services who buy the resources and run it in their libraries, working closely with schools and other partners in the area.
How it works
Children aged 4 to 11 are invited to read six books over the course of the summer holiday. They join at their local library and a summer reading challenge pack gets them started. There are stickers and rewards to collect along the way, with a certificate and often a medal, if they read six books.
The 2012 Summer Reading Challenge
Each year the Summer Reading Challenge has a different theme. For summer 2011 the theme was Circus Stars and we are delighted to announce that the 2012 theme will be Story Lab - a celebration of story and the imagination, Story Lab will have a link to the 2012 Olympics and is an official project in the Cultural Olympiad's London 2012 Festival
The photo below shows children from Middle Street Primary School in Brighton with children's author & illustrator Nick Sharratt at Jubilee library in Brighton, where LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic games) chose to make the announcement.
Director of the Cultural Olympiad Ruth MacKenzie said she wanted to: "...sprinkle some Olympic magic dust in every library as part of the 2012 Summer Reading Challenge."
About Story Lab 2012
Every city needs stories: a city without stories is a city that has lost its way. The adults have forgotten how to tell tales to the children; it's up to the Story Lab kids to save the city by boosting its imagination and bringing back and seeking out the stories for everyone to share!
Children who take part in the 2012 Summer Reading Challenge will collect stickers and incentives to turn the Story Lab into a fully functioning laboratory where children read, collect, share, create and transmit stories.
As usual there will be three stages to the Challenge so that children taking part feel a sense of progression: each stage will account for two books read, for which they will be given two sets of stickers towards their Story Lab fold-out model (similar to the Circus Stars stage).
The Story Lab will exist virtually as the Summer Reading Challenge website environment and we will encourage libraries to create a 'real' Story Lab area in their own libraries, staffed by lab assistants (librarians and volunteers!)
We have invited Steve May to be the 2012 Summer Reading Challenge illustrator. Steve is a celebrated illustrator/art director with an MA in animation from the Royal College. He illustrates the All Ears feature for the Saturday Guardian, Boy Zero; Wannabe Superhero (Peter Willetts) for Faber, Michael Lawrence's Jiggy McCue for Orchard, and Jeremy Strong's best-selling Cartoon Kid for Puffin.
Steve May's background in children's book illustration and animation make him the perfect choice for Story Lab. Steve will use a palette of bright punchy colours to reflect the emphasis on youth, internationalism and optimism prevalent at London 2012.
Order forms for Story Lab resources and book collections will be available in early 2012 and will be sent automatically to UK public library services.
How children benefit from taking part in the annual Summer Reading Challenge
The combination of fun, freedom, and creativity impacts significantly on children's reading levels, range, motivation and confidence. Taking part helps prevent the 'summer reading dip' in achievement when children without book/ reading opportunities at home over the long summer break from school traditionally lose ground in their reading (UKLA 2009, Product Perceptions 2006).
Children's literacy and enjoyment of reading is a key issue for government, local authorities and schools:
- A person with poor literacy is more likely to live in a non-working household, live in overcrowded housing and is less likely to vote (National Literacy Trust 2010) .
- England's reading achievement score has dropped from 3rd to 19th place. England is now out-performed by Russia, Italy and Latvia (PIRLS 2006 & 2009)
- Only 40% of England's ten year olds have a positive attitude to reading. The figure for Italy is 64% and 58% for Germany
- In England boys are 19% behind girls in reading and writing tests; in Scotland they are 22% behind
The importance of reading for pleasure
The Summer Reading Challenge now accounts for 20% of all books issued annually in UK libraries. It harnesses the power of reading for pleasure to improve children's life chances. Research shows that children who enjoy reading are more likely to score highly on reading assessments than those who don't (PIRLS 2009). Children who use libraries are twice as likely to be above average readers (National Literacy Trust 2011).
Reading for pleasure is a more important determinant of children's educational success than their family's socio-economic status (OECD 2002; Oxford University 2011)
2011 research from Oxford University* shows that reading for pleasure is the only out-of-school activity demonstrably linked to securing managerial or professional jobs. (Reading at 16 is linked to better job prospects, Mark Taylor, University of Oxford, 2011).
Resources
Reading Agency links
Download files
Contact
Anne Sarrag director, summer reading challenge