Priti Patel MP supports Witham campaign for every child to join local library and share a love of reading

Witham MP, Priti Patel, is supporting a campaign run by charity The Reading Agency to encourage all primary school children to take part in this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. The Challenge launches across England and Wales on Saturday, 13^th July 2019.

This year’s theme for the Summer Reading Challenge is Space Chase, inspired by the 50^th anniversary of the first moon landing. To take part in Space Chase, all children need to do is head to their local library. They will be given a special mission folder to keep track of the six library books they will be reading over the summer as part of the Challenge. There are also lots of collectible incentives to help motivate them in their reading mission.

At an event hosted by The Reading Agency in Parliament this week, Ms Patel learnt more about the Summer Reading Challenge and collected a couple of books which she will be donating to a local library as part of her annual Get Witham Reading campaign. This year, Get Witham Reading is taking place on Friday, 12^th July 2019 and nine schools across the constituency have registered to take part.

Priti said: “Recreational reading is not only a way to improve core academic skills, but can be very enjoyable too. The Summer Reading Challenge is free, inclusive and most importantly, makes reading fun. Last year 31,403 children in Essex took part and I hope that we can increase that number this year and demonstrate that our local libraries are valuable assets enjoyed by our local communities.

“Get Witham Reading 2019 is taking place on Friday, 12^th July to celebrate literacy and the significant benefits of reading and I hope this event and the Summer Reading challenge will inspire children and young people across my constituency to continue reading in their spare time.”

Sue Wilkinson, CEO of The Reading Agency said: “At The Reading Agency, we tackle life’s big challenges through the proven power of reading. We know from our research that families and children love taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge, and we are proud to have been running the Challenge for twenty years this year. The space theme has been chosen to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the first moon landing. Last summer, children worked with illustrator Adam Stower to come up with ideas for the Space Chase adventure, and we hope the Challenge will inspire all children to use their local library and to read lots of great books throughout the summer and beyond.”

For more information on the Summer Reading Challenge including how to get involved and resources for schools, go to: www.readingagency.org.uk/summerreadingchallenge.

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