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.

Each year the Summer Reading Challenge has a different theme. The 2012 theme is Story Lab - a celebration of story and the imagination.

To find out more and order promotional material, please go to Story Lab Resources

Also, you can now download the evaluation report for the 2011 Summer Reading Challenge - Circus Stars from the resources menu.

Story Lab will have a link to the 2012 Olympics and is an official project in the Cultural Olympiad's London 2012 Festival 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."

Olympic kids Children from Middle Street Primary School, with Nick Sharratt at Jubilee library in Brighton, where LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic games) chose to make the announcement.

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).