Every year, the Summer Reading Challenge takes place in libraries during the school summer holidays. Children read library books of their choice, there are exclusive goodies to collect, activities to complete and it’s FREE to take part!

West Sussex Libraries launched Wild World Heroes on Saturday 10 July and we had a lovely day welcoming visiting families who were beginning their challenge. Don’t worry if you’ve yet to visit your local library; you can register online first then head on down any time over the summer to collect your Summer Reading Challenge pack. Each bag contains a pull-out poster of Wilderville, 3 sets of scratch & sniff stickers, a fortune teller or bookmark, plus activity sheets by the Reading Agency.

We are also running a Mini Challenge for pre-school children. Ask staff and volunteers in your library to find out more.

The challenge finishes on Saturday 11 September, so you must pop in to collect your medal and certificate by this date.

As this year's challenge is all about what we can do to look after our planet, take your first step towards becoming a Wild World hero by decorating and reusing your bag. We’d love to see your amazing designs!

Why not forward this email to your friends so they can take part too?

Starting on Saturday 24 July take part in a character hunt competition at your local library! 

10 of the Wild World Heroes are hidden somewhere in the library. Once you have discovered where they are hiding, simply write down their name and number on the entry sheet then hand it in to a member of staff.

At the end of the summer holidays each library will draw a name at random from their collection and that lucky person will win a prize.

Good luck!

How do you help your children choose new authors and books to keep them busy reading? We suggest the Online Book Sorter, produced by The Reading Agency.

It's an interactive tool which allows children to choose the type of book they want to read and is based on recommendations from other families.

BookTrust, Barrington Stoke and LoveReading4Kids are all really useful websites too, with great book recommendations and story extracts, plus reading advice and support for parents and carers.

Have you seen the Reader Review activity sheet in your Summer Reading Challenge pack yet? As we are unfortunately unable to sit down with children to listen to them talk about the books they have been reading, we’d love to receive their book reviews instead. Hand these into your local library and staff will display for all to read.

Listening to audiobooks and reading eBooks, eMagazines and eComics all count towards the challenge, as does sharing stories together as a family. The key thing to remember is that children set their own reading targets this year and can choose to read or share any titles from the library in order to achieve their Wild World Heroes medal and certificate.

We have a wide range of brilliant eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazines for adults as well as children, available to download for free from our eLibrary. Why not borrow some yourself?

Head on over to West Sussex Libraries - Family Corner, a Facebook group where the whole family can come together to share stories, sing songs and enjoy all that libraries have to offer.  

We will be posting regular updates and online activities on Facebook and Twitter. Keep an eye out for our weekly special Wild World Heroes themed Storytime’s and craft activities, plus we will squeeze in a Summer Reading Challenge themed Rhyme Time or two!