Comic backs summer books scheme

Rosie Jones is one of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge  champions.

The comedian and children’s author will be promoting the scheme, in which youngsters set themselves targets and earn themselves digital rewards for the books they read.

She said: ‘I'm so thrilled to be part of the Summer Reading Challenge. When I was younger I would spend the entire summer holidays reading every book I could get my hands on and I loved it.

‘It's so important to encourage reading out of school, too. It keeps kids mentally active and able to access other worlds, magical kingdoms and wonderfully weird places. Here's to more reading for everybody!’

The challenge is run by the Reading Agency, which has joined forces with the Youth Sport Trust to add a physical dimension to the challenge.

Statistics from 2014 show that one in five children in England cannot read well by the age of 11 and that reading for pleasure is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.

The other champions are TV presenter and author, Radzi Chinyanganya, Olympic gymnast, Beth Tweddle and  A&E doctor and TV personality, Dr Alex George. 

Karen Napier, chief executive of The Reading Agency, said:  'We’re delighted that summer is approaching, and we have the support of such an outstanding team of Summer Reading Challenge champions.

'We hope that the accompanying booklist will inspire children visiting their local public library across the UK and look forward to continuing to work closely with our library partners, schools, community groups, parents and carers to ignite imaginations this summer.’​

Books by the likes of Julia Donaldson, Joe Wicks and Viv French, Oti Mabuse, Bear Grylls, Phil Earle, Clare Balding and Joseph Coelho are on the reading lists.

For more information, visit www.summerreadingchallenge.org.uk.

Published: 26 Apr 2023