Children ‘go ape’ for reading
FARNHAM library launched its summer campaign to get children reading last weekend, with help from a particularly hairy mentor.
A six-foot tall ‘ape’, on loan from Go Ape Centre at the Alice Holt Forest, joined nearly a dozen young children at the library on Saturday morning to mark the start of the 2014 Summer Reading Challenge.
The campaign, which is being supported by Go Ape, challenges children of either infant or junior school age to read six books over the summer, and to come back to the library on three occasions to record their progress.
A medal and certificate await those who successfully read all six titles.
The library has also offered £500 to the school which not only recruits the most pupils to the scheme, but which manages to get them to finish in proportion to the total number of pupils at the school.
A ‘ mythical maze’, ‘ mystic woodland’, and ‘mini labyrinth’ have been installed to attract a greater number of children.
A free Punch and Judy show and coffee and cake morning will take place at the library on Friday July 25 at 11am as part of the challenge.
The children’s initiative complements a county-wide scheme called Surrey Reads whereby anyone over the age of 12 who reads two, four or six books between July 12 and September 13 will be entered into a draw to win book tokens.