This year the Summer Reading Challenge takes place from Saturday 5 July to Saturday 13 September
Story Garden
The Summer Reading Challenge 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. All children aged 4 to 11 are welcome to take part.
Children can read anything they like and collect free rewards for their reading.
Join the challenge
This year’s Summer Reading Challenge is all about Story Garden - adventures in nature and the great outdoors. This exciting theme will inspire children to tap into a world of imagination through reading, exploring the magical connection between storytelling and nature.
Children can take part either at the library or online. The in-person and online challenges are separate.
Summer library events
We have a great range of fun events taking place in our libraries this summer.
Check our events directory for all the details.
What to read
You can choose any books you like to count towards your Summer Reading Challenge. Fiction, fact books, poetry, joke books, picture books and graphic novels - the choice is yours! You can also read digital e-books and listen to e-audiobooks using the library's free BorrowBox app and read e-magazines using the PressReader app.
Why not try some of these books during the challenge? The books below are available in our libraries.
Picture books
- Rajiv's starry feelings by Niall Moorjani and Nanette Regan
- Find a footprint by Jonathan Lambert
- Lulu meets the bees by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw
- Is it a seed? by Emily Ann Davison and Adriena Fong
- Leave the trees, please by Benjamin Zephaniah and Melissa Castrillon
- Wild by Katya Balen and Gill Smith
- Ava and the acorn by Lu Fraser and Paddy Donnelly
Early readers
- This lake is fake! by Julian Gough and Jim Field
- The children's book of wildlife watching by Dan Rouse and Abby Cook
- Hamza's wild world by Hamza Yassin and Louise Forshaw
- The cabbage juice crime by David O'Connell
- Maggie Sparks and the camping chaos by Steve Smallman and Esther Hernando
- Lots of things to know about bugs by Sarah Hull and Abbo Hannah
- Robin Hood aged 10 3/4 by Ben Miller and Elisa Paganelli
- Finding hope by Nicola Baker and Rachael Dean
- Baller boys vs the bulldozers by Vanessa Taylor and Kenneth Ghann
- Baller boys vs the bulldozers by Vanessa Taylor and Kenneth Ghann (ebook)
Middle grade books
- Marnie Midnight and the moon mystery by Laura Ellen Anderson
- Marnie Midnight and the moon mystery by Laura Ellen Anderson (ebook)
- Everything you know about minibeasts is wrong! by Nick Crumpton and Gavin Scott
- Super Happy Magic Forest and the Distant Desert by Matty Long
- Superhero plants by Chris Packham
- Superhero plants by Chris Packham (ebook)
- The edge of the silver sea by Alex Mullarky
- Angel of Grasmere by Tom Palmer
- Bigfoot and the wild boys by Jenny Pearson and Aleksei Bitskoff
- Bigfoot and the wild boys by Jenny Pearson and Aleksei Bitskoff (ebook)
- Pirates and sea monsters by Gill Lewis and Irina Avgustinovich
- Moonshifter by Penny Chrimes and Manuel Šumberac
- The last dragon by Polly Ho-Yen and Charis Loke
- Bird boy by Catherine Bruton
- Bird boy by Catherine Bruton (ebook)
- From plant to plate by Darryl Gadzekpo and Ella Phillips
- Jakub's otter by Coral Rumble
- Shipwrecked by Jenny Pearson
- Shipwrecked by Jenny Pearson (e-audio)
- Race of wonders by Jennifer Bell
- Open wide! jaw-dropping mouths of the animal world by Letizia Diamante and Ed J Brown
- The secret in the woods by Adam Stower
- Land of the last wildcat by Lui Sit and Nicolette Chin
- Land of the last wildcat by Lui Sit and Nicolette Chin (e-audio)
You can find more books to read on the Summer Reading Challenge reading list.
Benefits
Some of the benefits of taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge include:
- encouraging children to read throughout the summer holidays
- developing a lifelong love of reading for pleasure
- encouraging children to read a variety of genres
- encouraging the whole family to use resources in the library
- helping make sure that literacy levels do not drop over the summer
- most importantly - it's fun
Parents and guardians can find out more on the Summer Reading Challenge website.
Credits
Story Garden logo artwork © The Reading Agency 2025.
Story Garden illustrations by Dapo Adeola and © The Reading Agency 2025.
