This Years Summer Reading Challenge 2022: Gadgeteers

The Summer Reading Challenge is back in at your local library! Last years reading challenge theme was Wild World Heroes. This year’s theme is Gadgeteers. This event aims to encourage kids to read six library books over the summer holiday and show them that science is all around us. The FREE to join reading event started on Saturday 16th July and lasts till Saturday 10th September. It’s aimed for children aged between 4 to 11 years.

How does the Summer Reading Challenge work?

One way to sign up to the challenge is to sign up via your local library. Once you’ve signed up your child to the reading challenge, they will then receive a special sticker collectors poster showing a map of this year’s theme. Kids can then borrow and read any book they want and as many books as they want. However only 2 books at a time will count towards the challenge.

For the first 2 books my little girl has picked the story books “Winnie the Witch” and “Lucinda Belinda Melinda McCool“.

A minimum of 6 books need to be read to complete the reading challenge. Libraries recommend to borrow 2 books 3 times to complete the challenge.

Reading Rewards

After reading and returning 2 books at a time, you will receive stickers to stick on to the Gadgeteers sticker poster.

Some stickers have a nice smell, such as the one with the cupcakes. My Yasmin loved scratching and smelling the scented stickers. As mentioned above you’ll have to visit the library 3 times and borrow a minimum of 2 books each time. Upon completing the first 2 books, you’ll receive a Gadgeteers book mark and sticker for the map. Once another 2 books have been read and returned, you’ll receive a Gadgeteers themed fridge magnet and stickers for the map. Once the last 2 books have been completed, your child will receive a wooden Summer Reading Challenge medal, Certificate to show you’ve completed the challenge and the last sticker sheet for the poster map.

In the past the summer reading challenge medals have been made from metal. This year the reading agency has decided to change the material to wood. This is because wood is more eco-friendly material than metal. Though metal can be recycled, the process to recycle metal may use a lot of energy and may produce pollutants. It’s a great idea that wood is used to produce these medals, as wood is biodegradable.

Some libraries offer additional rewards for all summer reading champions, such as Manor House library in Lewisham, London. We’ve obtained a voucher to a free forest school class in Manor House Gardens for completing the challenge. Though we’ve completed the challenge in Ryde, the library in Lewisham was still happy to offer the free forest class.

So it’s worth asking whether your local library offers any additional rewards for completing the challenge.

Our thoughts of the Summer Reading Challenge

Yasmin has been singing up to the Summer Reading Challenge every year and still enjoys it. She enjoys collecting the rewards such as medals and certificates of the the yearly reading challenges and puts them in her memory box.

The Summer Reading Challenge is a free and fun way to encourage kids to read. Plus it’s something to do during the long summer holidays to keep the kids occupied. This is also a great way to encourage children to visit the library and borrow books more often after the challenge.

Since I’ve become more environmentally conscious over the last few years, we’ve been borrowing more books from the library instead of purchasing them. This has helped me save money and live a little greener. Find out more about My eco journey & how going eco has saved me money.

If you enjoy reading books but don’t want to go to the library to borrow books, why not sign up to your local library’s digital app called BorrowBox to access 1000s of Free eBooks and audiobooks on demand?

I think it’s lovely that Manor House Library is giving children a free forest school class as an additional reward. It would be really nice if more libraries offer additional rewards for kids that have completed the reading challenge. This would give the children more incentives to attempt and complete the reading challenge.

It would also be nice if the reading agency could offer a reading challenge for the winter holidays. Or if libraries make their own reading challenges for the other school holidays such as winter and easter.

What’s your thought?