YOUNG Victorians in Greater Shepparton are among more than 71,000 youths who explored exciting new worlds and built their literacy skills this year as part of a Reading Challenge.
Kids aged from pre-school to Year 10 collectively made their way through more than 2.8M books between March and September for the Challenge, which this year celebrated the theme ‘Open Up a New World’.
The annual challenge encourages enthusiastic readers across households, early childhood centres and schools to read a set number of books, including picture books, short stories, poems or non-fiction books, and record their efforts online.
The challenge sets kids a goal of 40 books for children below school age with their parents or carers, 30 books for Prep to Year 2 students with or without assistance, and 15 books for students in Years 3 to 10.
Of this year’s 71,342 participants, 8,315 readers were below school age, encouraging a love of books and stories in children from a young age.
More than 12,000 books were listed on the Reading Challenge booklist for each age group to choose from, with titles curated by an expert panel including teachers and librarians.
Greater Shepparton City Council will receive $12,351 so they can purchase materials to support the 2022 Challenge.
