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Volunteers needed for a wild summer of reading!

The Summer Reading Challenge is coming and Suffolk Libraries is looking for volunteers to help support the country’s biggest literacy campaign.

The Summer Reading Challenge is a fun way of encouraging children to keep up their reading skills over the long summer holidays. It challenges 4-11 year olds to read six books with stickers and other rewards as incentives.

This year is particularly special as it should hopefully mark the return to a more normal summer of activities in libraries after the campaign ran online in 2020.

The theme for 2021 is Wild World Heroes with the aim of raising awareness of the environment and the threat to the world’s wildlife.

Volunteers are needed to support children to complete the challenge and chat to them about the books they’ve read. Anyone aged 12 and over can sign up to volunteer and it’s great experience for young people. It’s fun, rewarding and it looks good on your CV.

Speak to your local library to get involved.

The summer reading challenge will run throughout the summer holidays. Children can sign up for free from 17 July at their local library and will receive a special collector poster for their stickers.

Paul Howarth, Head of Content and Resource Development at Suffolk Libraries, said:

“We’re looking forward to this year’s Summer Reading Challenge which should hopefully see thousands of children returning to our libraries to take part. After the pandemic it’s more important than ever to encourage younger children not to fall behind with their reading over the summer holidays. Volunteering is a big part of the challenge and it’s very rewarding so we’d love to hear from anyone who’d like to help out at their local library.”

The Summer Reading Challenge is organised by The Reading Agency and delivered in libraries across the country. The Reading Agency have teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund for this year’s challenge which will focus on taking action for nature and tackling real-world environmental issues, from plastic pollution and deforestation to wildlife decline and nature loss.

There will be lists of suggested books to read and illustrations for the challenge that have been created by award-winning children’s author and illustrator Heath McKenzie. For more information visit the Summer Reading Challenge website.