The 2025 Summer Reading Challenge started on "Super Sign-up Saturday" 5 July and is a FREE holiday activity for children. It's all about reading for fun, aiming to improve children's reading skills and confidence. The Challenge runs every year throughout the summer holidays, and ALL children aged 4-11 are welcome to take part.
Children can read anything they like and collect free rewards for their reading, including a bookmark, pop badge and wooden medal. This year’s theme is Story Garden – Adventures in Nature and the Great Outdoors, which will inspire children to tap into a world of imagination through reading, exploring the magical connection between storytelling and nature.
We will celebrate the start of the summer holidays and invite young readers to register for the Challenge on 19 July at their local library. Children will be able to enjoy a variety of self-serve activities, including the much-loved Summer Reading Challenge character hunt.
Our summer programme of activities and events for children and families has just been announced and here are the highlights...
Hansel and Gretel argue about everything: who's the loudest, the fastest, the smartest, and who gets the most Christmas presents?! So, when they wake up lost in the forest one day, they even disagree about how they came to be there! But with only a trail of breadcrumbs to guide them home, they'll have to put aside their differences to make it home in time for tea!
This new family show full of music, magic and puppetry from Wrongsemble celebrates how the simplest story can become the wildest fairytale in the hands of the right storyteller!
To celebrate this year’s Summer Reading Challenge theme, we will be making our own Story Gardens in lots of exciting ways. You will code robot bees and programme moisture sensors to keep plants hydrated, you will construct eye-catching plant pots with Lego and recreate historical landscapes, and you will craft colourful flowers and nature scenes from popular books.
It’s Green Fingers’ first day at school, and so far nobody has spotted his bright green hands. But then… GOO! GUNK! GLOOP! What a mess! Why are they suddenly misbehaving? It doesn’t help that heinous headmaster Mr Marigold despises anything dirty… but is something magical going on? Maybe the answers can be found in the mysterious school garden?
Join professional storyteller Stories with Liv and harpist Niamh Flynn from Made with Music for an interactive, musical retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. This immersive experience invites families to sing, move and play along as the classic tale comes to life.
