Halton Libraries completed another marvellous summer as we celebrated the creative arts during the school holidays.
This year’s Summer Reading Challenge, themed Marvellous Makers, was a great success in Halton with 803 children signing up to the challenge to read six books over the summer, with 529 of those successfully reading all six. And, many children did read something, even if they didn’t manage to read all the six books.
The purpose of the challenge, run by local libraries in association with The Reading Agency, is to prevent the summer dip in reading and aids the successful transition to new year groups and key stages. (The Reading Agency 2024). We are so thrilled to help families in this significant way.
We hope to extend the challenge and its reach to the children of Halton by taking a more targeted approach in the coming years. Some additional funding has been secured to help with this and more partnerships will be sought to help too. Please get in touch if you think you can help!
In addition to running the Summer Reading Challenge, Halton Libraries celebrated the creative arts with a whole host of fairy-tale themed summer events including a visit from Rachel R – Musical Storyteller who helped children tell the story of Sleeping Beauty using musical instruments (ranging from a bugle to a triangle and everything in between); arts and crafts events hosted by our library assistants in all four libraries, and a visit from the sensational Mama G – Panto Dame and storyteller.
Running along side our usual events – Rhyme time, Saturday Stories, Lego Club and Brilliant Builds – Halton Libraries hosted 3,510 children and adults over the six-week summer holidays, with 17,900 children and teen books issued.
It has been a super summer in our libraries!