This Summer my children are taking part in the 2012 Summer Reading Challenge! In case you have not yet heard of this, this is a national, yearly challenge, developed by the Reading Agency. The aim is to encourage children to read books throughout the Summer holidays.
This year’s theme is called Story Lab. Story Lab is a ‘Story Headquarters’ which receives stories from all over the world and then sends them back out of the lab and beyond. The Story Lab kids, Will, Rani, Evie and Lex, have to find a gold medal, silver mirror and bronze coin and return them to Professor Cortex in the Story Lab.
My son with his Story Lab pack
To sign your children up to take part in the Summer Reading Challenge, you will need to first register them with your local library, if you have not done so already. Your child is then given a free Story Lab pack and challenged to read six books over the Summer holidays.
Colourful stickers are given each time your child has read two books (or has had two books read to him/her!). On completing the Challenge, your child will be given a gold medal and fabulous certificate.
I have recently got into the good habit of taking my children to Henleaze Library in Bristol, every two weeks (please read my previous post ‘Encouraging a Love of Books at Henleaze Library’).
My daughter enjoys this but my little boy isn’t really interested in books just yet. However, I am persisting in encouraging him. I love reading, probably because my parents read to me a lot and regularly took me to the library when I was a child. I am glad that they did.
My daughter reading ‘Pat-a-Cake’
My daughter’s first books for this year’s Summer Reading Challenge are ‘Pat-a-Cake’, illustrated by Annie Kubler, and ‘Purple’ (which is a book of purple objects). The first book we chose as she likes nursery rhymes and the second book because I am trying to teach her colours at the moment.
My son’s first books are ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Harry and the Dinosaurs Romp in the Swamp’ by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds. We chose Jack and the Beanstalk as his pre-school has read it at story time and he liked it. We chose ‘Harry and the Dinosaurs’ because he loves dinosaurs!
Have you signed your child up for the 2012 Summer Reading Challenge? If you have, what books did you both pick? What do you think of the ‘Story Lab’ theme?
Please do join us in the Challenge and comment below!
Bishopston Mum 
My children are older and love doing the summer reading challenges. It's nice ot see younger kids doing it as well. Good on them 🙂
Thanks! Good to hear from another mum with kids taking on the summer reading challenge, too!