21 June 2019

Scoop up several books this summer to have the chance to win a year's supply of ice cream

This year, the highly successful Aberdeenshire Summer Reading Challenge was launched on Friday, June 21, at Inverurie Library and runs until Saturday, August 24.

Last year, just over 4,000 children signed up for the challenge, which is organised by the library staff within Live Life Aberdeenshire. It encourages youngsters to read during the summer holidays, with a creative competition running alongside. 

Author Vivian French encouraged the children and adults in attendance to take part in the challenge.
 
Each child taking part receives a collector card to keep track of the books they have read, collecting a sticker for each one and receiving a book prize after reading six books or more. The children will have the opportunity to do the challenge up to three times with other prizes being available if they do it a second or third time.

A book gift card will be awarded to the “Star Reader” from each library in Aberdeenshire. The lucky child will be chosen by library staff who have shown the most progress with their reading during the challenge. This year, the library service is going to award one of these children the title of “Aberdeenshire Star Reader” and the winner will be awarded a prize kindly donated by Aberdeenshire-based business Mackie’s of Scotland - £100 Book Gift Card and a year’s supply of Mackie’s Ice Cream.

For this year’s creative competition, we are again inviting children to design a bookmark with the theme of the love of reading. Prizes for the creative competition will be awarded to four age group categories – Pre-School, P1 to P4, P5 to P7 & S1+. Bookmarks will be submitted from each branch library with the four designs chosen from these entries being printed and distributed across Aberdeenshire.

All Star Readers and Creative Competition overall winners will be invited to a special prize giving event taking place on Saturday, September 28 at Woodhill House in Aberdeen.

Cllr Anne Stirling, Aberdeenshire Council’s Communities Committee chair, said: “Completing this challenge is a great achievement for young readers, and the benefits of that will last far beyond the summer.”

Committee vice chair, Cllr Iris Walker, said: “Good luck to all our young readers this year, may you go on to enjoy a lifetime of reading for pleasure”.    

Aberdeenshire Council’s Culture and Sport sub-committee chair, David Cook added: “By the end of summer, Aberdeenshire will have 39 new Star Readers!  What a great achievement”.  

Karin Hayhow, Marketing Director of Mackie’s of Scotland, said: “With making ice cream we are already committed to making the most of summer - and one excellent way to do that is to enjoy reading books! We love the Summer Reading Challenge idea and are pleased to be able to play our part in encouraging local children to enjoy as many books as possible over the summer holidays.”

For more information about this year’s Summer Reading Challenge please visit https://www.livelifeaberdeenshire.org.uk/libraries/