Read Manchester Update Summer 2026
Welcome to our Read Manchester Summer update. We are well into the National Year of Reading now and Read Manchester celebrates a 10-year anniversary this year too! See what we’ve been up to and how you can help us to Go All In with reading.
Two city-wide book-gifting programmes supporting school starters
Read Manchester has been working with Manchester City Council’s Education teams and schools on two city-wide Transition Read programmes.
Our programme for children starting Reception classes in September is now in its fourth year and this year features the book The Same But Different Too by Karl Newson, illustrated by Kate Hindley. Every child has been gifted a copy to enjoy with their family over the summer and to continue reading together with their new classmates in the new school year. Find out more about it and download the family resource on our blog.
This year’s Transition Read book for children starting high school is Quiet Storm by Kimberly Whittam. This is our third year of using this brilliant book and our 7th year of the primary to high school transition read. All Year 6 pupils were gifted their copy at their new high school’s Transition Day in July. Read more about it and download our Transition Read booklet here.
Manchester Day
Manchester Central Library was buzzing on Manchester Day, 26 July 2026 as the library recorded its busiest Sunday Funday ever! An amazing 7,614 visitors in 5 hours came to see the suite of activities on offer from Libraries, Read Manchester, Z-Arts and The Lowry. The city centre parade also featured books and reading for the National Year of Reading, alongside a Spanish theme thanks to Manchester’s links with Barcelona.
Families were offered the chance to be ‘prescribed books’ by the library team’s resident book doctors. The ‘doctors’ suggested new authors or books to visitors who might be looking for their next great read or to others who may have fallen out of the habit of reading regularly. Children were also invited to join this year’s Summer Reading Challenge Read to the Beat. Find out more about our Sunday Funday
Reading Roadshows
Following on from last year’s successful ‘roadshows’ we took our Summer Reading Challenge and bookgifting offer back out on the road to parks around the city. From Wythenshawe Park right up to Philips Park, we travelled to events including Love Parks Week at Wythenshawe, Play Day at Platt Fields and celebrated 180 years of Philips Park. All family members were invited to choose a free book and children joined both the library and the Summer Reading Challenge. Tom and Caroline from the team shared some brilliant stories and helped children to craft some junk musical instruments to tie in with this year’s Summer Reading Challenge theme – Read to the Beat! We’ve also been hiding some books in the parks which have been donated to us by the brilliant National Trust and of course, our Literacy Champions have been helping out too.
“Excellent initiative to encourage children to read, amazing selection of books of all genres”
“Amazing opportunity to encourage reading for my children, books are expensive!”
“Good experience with the books, kids loved reading and picking their own books.”
Local businesses helping us to deliver books, books and more books!
Volunteers greatly enhance our Read Manchester offer, whether that is our Literacy Champions or the business community. Several local companies have kindly devoted their time to Read Manchester recently. In the last year, we have benefitted from almost 300 hours of delivery time! Without a delivery van or driver, we rely on corporate volunteers to help us deliver books and resources to settings. Literally thousands of books have been delivered by our corporate volunteers to primary schools, high schools and hundreds of other community settings. You can read more about our business supporters and how you can get involved on the library blog.
Go All In with volunteering – Literacy Champion Spotlight
Supporting Farsi-Speaking Families Through Language, Culture and Community
This summer, Read Manchester supported a project led by Literacy Champion Atefeh, who wanted to create a welcoming space for Farsi-speaking families in Manchester.
Before moving to the UK, Atefeh worked as a primary school teacher in Iran. As a mother of a young child herself, she connected with other families who shared a desire to maintain links with the Farsi language and culture while building a sense of community in their new home.
After speaking with the team at Manchester Art Gallery, who facilitate the popular Families of the World sessions, Atefeh secured a space to run the group during the summer holidays.
The sessions are simple, informal and family-friendly, featuring songs, storytelling and play activities in Farsi. The aim is to help children develop and maintain a connection with the language, while providing families with a friendly and supportive community space.
Alongside the sessions, Atefeh was keen to ensure families had access to high-quality books in both Farsi and English to encourage shared reading at home. Through Read Manchester, families receive a free book at each session, carefully selected to support speech and language development in young children.
The response from families has been overwhelmingly positive, with many valuing the opportunity to connect with others and hear their children using Farsi in a social setting.
“We are very happy to have a space where our children can hear and use Farsi with other families.”
“We have enjoyed meeting other Farsi-speaking parents and would love for these sessions to continue.”
If you are interested in becoming a Literacy Champion, take a look at our website.
COMING UP…
Take 10 to Read
As ever, Take 10 is a highlight of our year at Read Manchester, and this year it is also a central moment in the National Year of Reading. First developed by Read Manchester in 2018, the campaign encourages people of all ages to drop everything and read for just 10 minutes and experience the wellbeing benefits of reading. That’s why, each year on 10 October for World Mental Health Day we call on schools, businesses and communities to #Take10ToRead. Find out what we’ve done previously on our website and look out for updates soon. If you have an idea for how to Take 10 in your business, school or community setting, please do get in touch with:
margaret.duff@manchester.gov.uk or cheryl.pridgeon@manchester.gov.uk
As part of this year’s Take 10 campaign in the National Year of Reading, we’re going to attempt to set a new Guinness World Records title for the most people reading online over 12 hours. Please hold the date as we’d love you to be part of it on Thursday 8 October 2026! There will be options for all ages to get involved, at various points in the day between 9am and 9pm BST. We will be encouraging you to run your own Take 10 moments too, and sharing other simple ways to take part in the campaign. Stay tuned for more details very soon!
Non-fiction November
Last year we shone a spotlight on Non-Fiction November, and we were so pleased with the response that we’ll be doing it again! We know that many children are more engaged by reading non-fiction, and that the ‘right book’ for them may not be a story title. Non-fiction also has a vital role in helping children learn about their world and celebrate different perspectives. More details to follow.
Read Manchester’s 10-year anniversary
We can’t quite believe it ourselves but Read Manchester has been developing campaigns and promoting the benefits of reading for pleasure for 10 years now! Our partnership between Manchester City Council and National Literacy Trust has strengthened over time and we’re going to be celebrating some of our achievements and favourite campaigns with you soon – it may involve cake! Watch this space.
