Smashing summer reading records
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Children of the Blue Mountains can celebrate a significant achievement, smashing through 100,000 books in Blue Mountains Library’s annual Summer Reading Challenge.
Over 10 years, our readers up to the age of 18 years, have read an incredible 106,780 books. Indeed, this years’ tally of 14,830 books, read by 654 registered young people, is also a record.
At a ceremony on Tuesday 5 March – to mark the tenth anniversary of the Challenge and to announce the 2019 winners – Deputy Mayor Cr Chris Van der Kley awarded the following prizes: • Best Junior Reader (jointly) - Mia-Rose Jones and Ruby-Mae Jones • Best Teen Reader - Sarah Luong • Encouragement Award - Madeline Brett-Hall, and • Best Family Readers Award – the Glenfield family.
Previous winners also attended the event.
The Summer Reading Challenge, which takes place each summer school holiday, allows registered participants to read books, eBooks, picture books, talking books, graphic novels and electronic talking books. So, the huge choice of resources plus $5 book vouchers from Megalong Books or The Turning Page for each log sheet returned, makes this a very exciting challenge indeed.
Blue Mountains Mayor, Cr Mark Greenhill, said: “From these statistics you can see that our children have put in a huge effort. We are encouraged to see that our junior readers from 10 years ago are now reading just as actively as teenagers.
“Blue Mountains Library continues to create an exciting environment for children, combining both reading and library activities to stimulate and strengthen lifelong learning. The Library not only helps to instil the habit of reading, but also fosters a thirst for knowledge which makes children open to new ideas throughout their lives.
“A big thank you to all staff at the Library who encouraged the children to participate.”
Pic: Summer Reading Challenge winners and sponsors - Syed Ahmed, Luca Penserini, Abigail Dickens, Annie Sharkey from Turning Page, Sarah Luong, Vicki Edmunds from Blue Mountains City Council, Amy Grieves, Alan Crooks from Turning Page, Emma Glenfield, Deputy Mayor Chris Van Der Kley, Ella-Beth Bonny, Emma Cranby and Madeline Brett-Hall.