Nottingham City Libraries are on their marks and getting set to keep young people active and keep them reading throughout the summer holidays with the Summer Reading Challenge.

The Summer Reading Challenge is simple – read six books during the summer, through your local library. Children are given a special pack and a set of incentives to collect as they read, with a certificate and medal for those that successfully complete the Challenge.

Children can pop into their local library and register from Friday 18th July and start collecting their rewards!

Every year there’s a different theme. This year’s Summer Reading Challenge is called Team Read, with a whole range of sporty activities and incentives to spur children on to the finishing line. In last year’s challenge, the ‘Big Wild Read’ over 2,000 Nottingham children joined in. This year Nottingham City Libraries want to increase the number of children getting involved by 10%.

Librarians at all Nottingham City Libraries will be on hand to act as team coaches, and an interactive Team Read website has been launched, linking children with top authors and illustrators whilst giving them space to talk about their favourite books and share reading ideas. With Team GB gearing up for the Beijing Olympics, successful Team Readers will be able to boast that they’ve beaten our top sportspeople when it comes to winning medals! So there’s more than a sporting chance that boys as well as girls will get on the fast track to becoming keen readers.

Councillor Trimble, Portfolio Holder Culture, Leisure and Communities said: "Team Read is a fun learning activity to encourage children to keep up with their reading during the school holidays. It also helps develop a passion for books and reading and creates a sense of achievement when they complete the challenge. Nottingham City Libraries have excellent resources for children and this scheme helps them to make the most of what Libraries can offer."

The Summer Reading Challenge is in its tenth year, and is now reaching over 650,000 children in the UK. It’s created and run by The Reading Agency, the independent charity working to bring more reading to more people, in partnership with the UK library network.

Research shows how key reading for pleasure is for children’s life chances, and yet recent international comparisons show that children in England enjoy reading less than their international peers and less than they did five years ago. They’re also spending less time reading for fun outside of school.

The good news is that the Summer Reading Challenge is keeping children in the race over the summer when it comes to reading, improving their reading range, confidence and enjoyment. Schools say that this contributes to their confidence and reading achievement, with potentially life-changing results.

This year, thanks to a new initiative called Enjoying Reading, there are also new resources available to help libraries and schools work more closely together in capitalising on the progress children make through the Summer Reading Challenge and turning them into reading winners. That’s an excellent result as part of the 2008 National Year of Reading.

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