12 July 2007.

STAFFORD MP BOOKS INTO SUMMER READING CHALLENGE

Stafford’s Labour MP David Kidney is backing the Big Wild Read, a campaign to get children along to libraries and keep them reading through the long summer holidays.

On Tuesday (July 17) Stafford’s MP joined more than 100 colleagues at a reception held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries in the House of Commons. The campaign, organised by the Reading Agency, aims to encourage children to visit their local libraries during the summer holiday period so they do not lose any reading skills during the break from school teaching. To support this initiative David Kidney will be donating books, courtesy of The Reading Agency’s publishing partners, to a local library.

David Kidney says:

“I fully support this campaign, and I will be delighted to donate books to a local library this summer in support of this excellent project. Our libraries and librarians help children get the reading habit early. Libraries are great places to spend time and learn to enjoy books.
“While children are having a great time, they are also reinforcing all the educational achievements in reading. Holidays are a good time to enjoy reading for all of us, and I urge everyone to go along to one of our fabulous libraries to pick up a book this summer.”

Every year, more and more children take part in the Summer Reading Challenge, undertaken in partnership with public libraries and supported by children’s publishers. This summer a staggering 700 000 children are expected to take part, and an estimated 16 million books will be borrowed.