Summer Reading Challenge 2020

The annual Summer Reading Challenge, produced by the Reading Agency and delivered by libraries, is back to encourage four to 11-year-olds to keep reading books over the summer.

The theme this year is ‘Silly Squad’. The aim is to encourage children to read whatever makes them happy, get silly and have fun!

Online platform

This year The Reading Agency has created a new online platform to help children keep track of the books they’ve read and collect rewards along the way; children can sign-up for the Challenge at sillysquad.org.uk. Award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, Laura Ellen Anderson, has created bespoke illustrations for Silly Squad 2020.

The Summer Reading Challenge is the biggest children’s reading for pleasure programme in the UK. Last year over 700,000 children took part nationally, including 3,440 children in North Somerset.

The first Summer Reading Challenge took place in 1999 and is an annual initiative with a different theme each year. The programme is delivered by The Reading Agency in partnership with public libraries, publishers and schools.

North Somerset libraries have online collections of eBooks, eAudiobooks, online comics and magazines for children to read as part of the challenge; more information is available at: www.n-somerset.gov.uk/onlinelibrary. We’ll also be running a library click and collect service at selected libraries.

To keep children entertained and reading over the summer, you can find fun activities and book recommendations on North Somerset libraries’ social media feeds. Search for ‘North Somerset Libraries’ on YouTube, or follow our Facebook page: facebook.com/nslibraries.

Reading benefits

The benefits of reading are well documented – for example:

  • studies show that 16-year-olds who read for pleasure outside school are more likely to secure managerial or professional jobs later in life;
  • children aged 10 who read books often, and more than once a week aged 16, gain higher results in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who read less frequently; 
  • a recent survey commissioned by The Reading Agency showed that 45% of young people are reading more during lockdown.