I apologise that it has been a while since my last post. I always seem to struggle with getting these posts together and posted regularly, but I’m hoping this will come with time! For this post, I decided to do something a little different and just discuss the Summer Reading Challenge…
What is the Summer Reading Challenge?
So, some of you may not know what the Summer Reading Challenge (SRC) actually is. For clarification, it is a national reading scheme that is largely promoted by libraries and tries to encourage school kids to read over their summer holidays. The challenge is for children to read 6 books from the library over the summer holidays; effectively one per week of the holidays. Every time a child returns 2 books they earn a prize and they recieve a certificate at the end. Each challenge has a theme and in honour of Roald Dahl’s centenary 2016’s theme was the Big Friendly Read.
So, why am I posting about it?
This year’s challenge has just come to its end and as I’m currently working in a fairly busy library, the SRC has featured pretty heavily in my working week over the summer. However, I’m posting because I found my own reading records from two challenges that I completed myself when I was sorting through my bedroom. It was really interesting (and a bit weird) to see these booklets and think that I am now on the other side, giving out the prizes and what not. I thought it would make for an interesting post to talk about the books I’d read during the challenge.
The Reading Planet (2002) – aged 8
The books I read during this challenge were:
1 ~ The Perfect Pizza – Schoular Anderson [3 stars]
2 ~ Just Wanna Have Fun – Sara Wilson [3 stars]
3 ~ Owl In The House – Gregory Evans and Peter Bailey [3 stars]
4 ~ The Diary Of A Killer Cat – Anne Fine [1 star]
5 ~ Max The Mucky Puppy – Jenny Dale [3 stars]
6 ~ The Karate Princess – Jeremy Strong [2 stars]
 
The Big Wild Read (2007) – aged 13
1 ~ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J. K. Rowling [3 stars]
2 ~ The Chicken Gave It To Me – Anne Fine [2 stars]
3 ~ Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck [3 stars]
4 ~ The Haunted School – R. L. Stine [3 stars]
5 ~ Chinchilla Up The Chimney – Lucy Daniels [3 stars]
6 ~ Tiger – Geoffrey Malone [3 stars]
My thoughts
Unsurprisingly, I remember much more from “The Big Wild Read” and I remember reading all 6 of those books, even if I don’t remember the plots. I remember much less from “The Reading Planet” and the only books I remember distinctly are The Diary of a Killer Cat & The Karate Princess, although I remember reading the Jenny Dale series of books and when I looked up the covers for these books they did spark a memory.
I find it quite interesting that the only author I read for both challenges was Anne Fine and that I gave neither title 3 stars, even though I remember really enjoying Anne Fine’s books when I was younger. I am also surprised by the 2 stars I gave to The Karate Princess, as again, I remember loving the series and the author, but who knows what the 8-year-old me was thinking! It also seems that I was quite keen on animal books, which again is no surprise to me as I ate up authors like Lucy Daniels & Jenny Dale.
What I also find quite interesting is I remember very little about the prizes from either challenge. I seem to remember a pale wristband from “The Big Wild Read” but beyond that I’m really not too sure. But I found it very interesting to look back over these two challenges and it just reinforces how important reading has always been to me! It also shows how much the challenge has grown over the years, and I hope that it continues to encourage kids to get involved with reading and to visit libraries and reminds me of how much I’ve enjoyed the challenge from both sides of the library counter!
Over & Out. 🙂
This is me with my “Reading Planet” certificate! Sadly, the Wild Read one is missing in action ( 😥 ) but I’m sure it will be floating in a folder somewhere.
P.S. As this post was quite reflective I decide to include the title track from Lissie’s second studio album, Back to Forever. Hope you enjoy 🙂
Adam's Random Ramblings 