THE NUMBER of Bradford children taking part in a push to keep young people reading over the summer holidays has risen again.

The Summer Reading Challenge invites children aged between four and 12 to continue reading over the break, and new figures show that last summer over 4,000 young people took part.

The figure was up slightly on 2015 - by 0.2 per cent, compared to a smaller increase across the wider Yorkshire area of 0.09 per cent.

The challenge also saw 600 children joining a library for the first time to take part, and over 4,700 children and their parents attending 155 free library events that took place throughout the district’s 29 libraries over the summer weeks.

The reading challenge is for children to read six books of their choice over the summer break, and every child who does so will receive a certificate and medal.

Forty nine per cent of children from the Bradford district involved in the challenge completed their six books.

Its main aim is to keep children reading over the long summer break, as research shows that children who do stop reading entirely over the summer can fall behind in their literacy skills.

Last year’s event had a Roald Dahl theme to mark the late author’s 100th birthday, and children who took part were rewarded with artwork by Quentin Blake, who illustrated many of Dahl’s books.

Libraries held a number of events themed around the author’s books too.

This year, the reading challenge will have an animal theme.

The schools with the highest percentage of participants, and those with the highest percentage of completers in the challenge, have each been awarded an author event for their whole school to enjoy on World Book Day.

Yorkshire-born author Andrew Newbound, behind books such as Demon Strike, will be visiting the four successful schools on Thursday, March 2 to talk about the importance of reading.

St Mary’s & St Peter’s Primary in Barkerend and Lister Primary in Manningham had the highest participation of their pupils taking part in the challenge, while Dixons Marchbank Academy and Menston Primary had the highest percentage of completers of the challenge.

Christinea Donnelly, development officer for young people at Bradford Libraries, said: “The Summer Reading Challenge can make a real difference to the literacy attainments of children as well as develop a passion and enjoyment for reading which reaches beyond a child’s school years.

"We’re now looking forward to the summer reading challenge 2017 which has the fantastic theme of animals and we’ll be making sure that children have as much fun in libraries this year as they have had in 2016.”

Bradford Libraries works with local schools to encourage and motivate as many children, and their parents, as possible to participate in the reading challenge every year.

Last year they were aided by 30 Summer Reading Challenge Young Ambassadors, all aged 13 to 17, who volunteered throughout the summer.

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