About the SRC

Welcome to the official blog for the Swansea Libraries Summer Reading Challenge! 

  

What is the Summer Reading Challenge?

The Summer Reading Challenge is a national programme set up by The Reading Agency and delivered by library services, where children are challenged to read up to six books over the summer holidays.  Participants collect stickers and other rewards as they progress through the challenge.  

It's an awesome initiative. It introduces young readers to new books, rewards them for reading and also helps to prevent the dreaded summer "reading dip". In Swansea, more than 2000 children took part in the challenge last year. That's 2000 young readers who went back to school in the autumn with better reading skills after taking part in this great scheme. 

What is this year's theme?

This year’s theme is “Creepy House” and it is sure to be a lot of fun! The author and illustrator, Chris Riddell has penned the artwork for this years's challenge and there is a fantastic list of creeptastic books to accompany his spooky artwork. Kids don't have to read from this list; they can read any six books from their local library to complete the challenge and get their prizes!

What will be happening in Swansea?

Various events will be taking place over the summer holidays in all of the Swansea Libraries. Craft activities, spooky parties and all sorts of competitions will be popping up as soon as the competition launches on July 6th. 

You can keep track of all the goings on via the Calendar! 

What is this blog for?

On this blog you can keep up to date with news about the challenge, read book reviews written by challenge participants and read some spine-tingling interviews in the Spooky Stories page. 

Due to the increasing popularity of the challenge and because we want to encourage as many children as possible to love reading, we have taken on volunteers to help with the Summer Reading Challenge in the Swansea Libraries this year! These awesome people will be posting all manner of fun and frivolity on this blog, so be sure to give them a pat on the back if you see them in your local library! 

WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR THIS SUMMER! IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, CLICK HERE.