Thousands take part in Coventry libraries' Summer Reading Challenge
Tuesday 2 October 2012
Young bookworms across the city have been receiving medals and certificates as a reward for taking part in a summer of reading.
Almost 3,000 young people aged between four and 11 took part in this year's summer reading challenge at Coventry City Council's 17 libraries.
The theme of this year's annual challenge was story lab - a celebration of story and the imagination.
Youngsters were challenged to read six or more books over the summer holidays with incentives along the way and rewards at the end.
They included Super Munglers trump cards which are a pack of 21 trump cards featuring the Munglers monster characters devised by author and illustrator Guy Bass.
The pack included character cards with each card scored for strength, size, speed, smell and scariness to enable the cards to be played as a trumps game.
The free challenge, now in its 14th year, is designed to help children develop a love of reading, boost their confidence and teach them new skills.
Councillor David Kershaw, CBE, Coventry City Council's Cabinet Member for Libraries, believes taking part can make a real difference.
He said: "It's a great way to keep children entertained over the holidays but more importantly tackle the problem that reading levels can drop during the summer period.
"This can be an issue when young people return to school in September so the challenge is a fun, free way of tackling this.
"Our summer reading challenge offers a way to keep children interested in reading and sharing books and children get a real sense of achievement when they receive their certificates and medals.
"To have almost 3,000 young people take part is wonderful and they can all feel justifiably proud of what they have achieved."
Picture Caption:
Cllr David Kershaw (centre) with (l-r) four-year-old Morgan Kitchen and Blake Weston, aged nine, showing off their certificates and medals
