Mark is encouraging all primary school children to take part in The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge 2022.
The Challenge launches in England and Wales on Saturday 9 July.
Through taking part in the Challenge, with free packs from public libraries and through the digital platform, children will be able to join six fictional ‘Gadgeteers.’ The characters – brought to life by children’s writer and illustrator Julian Beresford – use their curiosity and wonder to understand the science behind a whole range of interests from fashion and technology to cooking and music.
The Summer Reading Challenge reaches more than 700,000 children across the UK each year and is delivered in partnership with public libraries. The Challenge continued to reach well over half a million children across the UK in 2021 as lockdowns eased, motivating children to keep reading during a difficult time.
Since 1999, the popular Challenge has encouraged children to read for pleasure over the summer holidays, building reading skills and confidence and helping to prevent the ‘dip’ in reading skills while children are out of school. By providing fun reading activities, the Challenge will support families and teachers by providing free-to-access recreation and learning resources – all created to keep children inspired to read.
The Challenge and its innovation-themed book collection will show that imagination can unlock endless possibilities, and the library is where this starts. This list includes numerous options spanning picture books, early reader books and middle grade titles by leading authors and illustrators, including: Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Melissa Castrillon, Sunita Chawdhary, Alex Falase-Koya, Saadia Faruqi, Vashti Hardy, Caryl Hart, SJ King, Katy Riddell, Dr Ranj Singh, Lydia Corry, and Leo Timmers, amongst many others. The full list can be viewed here.
Commenting, The Rt Hon Mark Pritchard MP said:
"The Summer Reading Challenge encourages children to read, while keeping it fun. It is a great activity to build young readers' skills and confidence during the summer holidays. I am encouraging as many families as possible to take part."
