Every summer, Manchester Libraries partners with The Reading Agency for the Summer Reading Challenge, a nationwide mission to keep children reading and learning during the holidays. Why? Because the “summer slide” is real! While some pupils breeze into September, others spend weeks re-learning lost skills. The Challenge makes reading fun, rewarding, and social.
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Prizes and Celebrations
We love celebrating Manchester’s amazing young readers! This year, we gave away fantastic prizes in September to recognise their hard work. Many prizes were presented at winners’ schools to boost Manchester Libraries’ presence and celebrate their achievements.
Big Congratulations to Matthew from Northenden Library!
Matthew was the lucky winner of our grand prize, a £100 Smyths voucher, selected at random from all the completers of the challenge. Matthew was also selected by a Librarian for a Special Effort prize for his phenomenal reading.
To make things even more exciting, we also ran a Book Review Competition for ages 5-16. Children could write a review or create a drawing about a book, making it accessible for all abilities. Entries were split into four age categories, and we awarded prizes to eight talented winners, four for written reviews and four for drawings. The creativity and quality were outstanding, leaving our judges in awe! Winners came from libraries across the city, Abraham Moss, Burnage, Forum, Longsight, and Newton Heath.
Extra Rewards
- 23 Goody Bags were awarded to completers across 23 libraries.
- Digital completers were invited to Central Library to receive their medal and certificate a fantastic recognition of their self-motivated success.
- Some libraries also gave Special Effort Goody Bags to children who went above and beyond, reading extra books, attending activities, or showing exceptional enthusiasm.
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School Competitions
We didn’t forget the schools! Those with 10% completers were entered into a prize draw to win an author visit with Emma Reynolds or a bundle of new books for their school. Congratulations to our winning schools:
- Oswald Road Primary
- St James Primary
- Brookburn Primary
Thank you to everyone who took part in the Summer Reading Challenge. You have made Manchester Libraries proud!