This summer we're excited to bring you the Summer Reading Challenge 2024, Marvellous Makers! This year's challenge from The Reading Agency is all about creativity. From dance to drawing, junk modelling to music, there's something for everyone!
You'll be able to find new reads linked to your favourite creative arts and access free activities at the library. We can't wait to get creative!
The Summer Reading Challenge is developed by The Reading Agency and delivered in partnership with public libraries. This year’s theme has been developed in partnership with Create, a leading charity bringing the creative arts to those who need it most.
CREATE aims “To use the creative arts to connect, empower, inspire and upskill society’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable people, raising aspirations, building self-esteem, reducing isolation and enhancing wellbeing.”
The Summer Reading Challenge is a FREE holiday activity for children. It’s all about reading for fun, aiming to improve children’s reading skills and confidence. The Challenge is the UK’s biggest free reading for pleasure programme for children and runs every year throughout the summer holidays!
Children’s reading skills can ‘dip’ during the long summer holidays without regular access to books and encouragement to read for pleasure. The Summer Reading Challenge helps to tackle this by regularly reaching over 700,000 children each year, motivating them to visit the library and keep reading during the holidays, which, in turn, vitally boosts children’s confidence and maintains their reading skills in preparation for the new school term.
The Summer Reading Challenge takes place during the summer holidays and Milton Keynes City Libraries are running the challenge from 19 July until 7 September.
You can sign up at your local library from Friday 19 July 2024 and read any books of your choice to collect special stickers and after reading your six books, you'll be presented with a medal and a certificate of achievement - all for FREE (while stocks last).
There’s a digital platform too! Sign up online at summerreadingchallenge.org.uk where you can use the book sorter to discover new books, find fun reading activities, play games, watch videos and write book reviews.
We have recruited many young volunteers to help us out over the summer and we hope you’ll take the time to chat with them about the books you’ve read.
Enjoy choosing your books and be sure to complete the challenge by reading and recording six books before the closing date of 7 September 2024.
Remember – this is reading for fun and you can read whatever library books you like and however you’d like to read them – whether its fiction, fact books, poetry, joke books, picture books, graphic novels, audiobooks or eBooks.
Are you up for a challenge?
We're looking for volunteers aged 13 to 25 to become Summer Reading Challenge Champions. If you love books and reading, want experience working with children and enjoy talking with people, then why not sign up?
During the summer holidays Milton Keynes Libraries get extremely busy with over 3000 children taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge and we want you to act as reading role models for them.
You will sign children up to the challenge, track their progress, hand out incentives, help them find their next book and most importantly chat with them about what they've been reading.
We would like you to commit to around 2 hours a week, although ideally times and even locations would be flexible.
There will be a group induction evening before the summer holidays to tell you more about the role, what we expect from you and what you should expect from us.
If you want to get involved, please complete the online application form. If you prefer, you can print an application form or ask library staff for a form and then return it to Central Library.
Although the closing date for applications was Friday 28 June 2024, we are still happy to receive applications.
[Marvellous Makers illustrations by Natelle Quek and logo artwork by Lizzie Everard. All © The Reading Agency 2024.]
Milton Keynes Central Library, 555 Silbury Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 3HL