We have just completed the Summer Reading Programme for 2021/2022.

The Summer Reading Programme is an annual reading programme for children aged 4-10 years, with young teenagers in the 11-13 year age bracket taking part in the iRead programme. Plus there is even a Te Reo Māori and multilingual option.

This year we moved the programmes online due to COVID-19. The format remained the same with kids reading books and getting incentives, only the delivery was different. For the Summer Reading programme there was still the required 4 ‘book chats’ which kids can log online, but there were also extra challenges to take part in, like Read somewhere unique or unusual and Make, hide or hind a Summer Reading space rock.

Although there may have been some initial challenges with the programme such as learning how to log in and log reading, the overall feedback was positive. And we still enjoyed interacting with the kids as they came in to get their books.

It was great to see that although we had a different format some things remained the same. Like the Diary of a Wimpy kid and Harry Potter books, and the popular authors like David Walliams, Enid Blyton and Rick Riordan continue to be a popular choices.

And now preparations are underway for our next reading programme – see you there!