The numbers from this year’s Big Summer Read are in, and Hundreds of kids across the Melton students read thousands of books during the campaign to stop the “summer slide” of childhood reading proficiency during the long summer Holidays.
The Big Summer Read is a state-wide program from Public Libraries Victoria that Melton council has participated in since the program’s inception.
This year, 433 residents in the Melton municipality signed up to the program, and they read an average of 14 books each – logging a total of 5,952 books read across December and January.
Melton Mayor Cr Lara Carli said reading for pleasure is “such an important and foundational part of our early lives”.
“Local libraries like ours play an essential role for creating space for kids to learn, play and grow,” she said.
The Big Summer Read aims to arrest what is known as the ‘summer slide’, a loss of reading proficiency as high as 40 per cent that happens when children stop reading over summer, and disproportionately affects areas of socio-economic disadvantage.
Actor and Big Summer Read ambassador Stig Wemyss said it’s the “responsibility” of adults to get kids interested in reading at a young age.
“There’s so much technology in the world that is designed to steal our children’s attention,” he said.
“I see it as our responsibility to find ways to excite children about literature because we know that children who read and listen to books, have a better vocabulary, a greater thirst for knowledge and a much stronger capacity to retain information.”
Public Libraries Victoria’s Children and Youth Services Special Interest Group co-convenor Christine Vandor praised the positives of reading for young students.
“The benefits of reading really are amazing,” she said.
“Simply put, young people who regularly read for pleasure do better at school in all subjects, regardless of their parents’ level of education.”
More information about the Big Summer Read can be found online.
Details: www.plv.org.au/projects/big-summer-read/
