An amazing 25,394 children took part in this year’s free, annual, Summer Reading Challenge at Hampshire County Council’s libraries, reading a whopping 100,000 books between them.
Hampshire County Council’s Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage, Councillor Seán Woodward, said: “Our young readers have done brilliantly well in the Summer Reading Challenge and it was great to see all the mischief being created and the range of books being read – my congratulations go to all those who took part.
Run by the Reading Agency, the Summer Reading Challenge is aimed at 4 to 11 year olds. The Challenge to the children is to read any six books over a two month period, from mid-July to mid-September.
This year, the theme was ‘Mischief Makers’ in honour of the 80th anniversary of the Beano comics, which contain continually popular characters, including Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Mix, The Bash Street Kids and Billy Whizz.
Each finisher received a gold medal and certificate in recognition of their achievement as well as a completed map of Beanotown.
“A special thanks goes to all the library staff and volunteers, including our young volunteers, who contributed to the success of the Challenge, from running school assemblies, to listening to children each time they returned to record their reading total.”
If you would like to get involved in supporting your local library, find out more about the volunteering opportunities available with Hampshire Libraries.
DONT FORGET
From Monday 1 October Andover Library will be closed to the public as they carefully pack up all the books so that work can begin on the refurbishment. They re-open with a reduced service from Monday 8 October.
