On Monday May 10, over 6,500 people from libraries, schools and businesses in Suffolk took part in the #Take10ToRead Challenge as part of the Connecting Stories initiative.
Connecting Stories is a new initiative delivered by the National Literacy Trust, the Arts Council England funded project aims to increase children and young people’s access to literary experiences and books. 24 publishers and over 60 children’s authors are supporting the campaign through book donations, author workshops and virtual visits.
At 10am, children and adults across Suffolk stopped what they were doing to pick up a book and read for 10 minutes. The #Take10ToRead challenge came as a way to help promote reading to promote reading for wellbeing.
As part of the challenge, the people of Suffolk were asked to pick up a book, comic, magazine, or newspaper and read it for just 10 minutes, as research shows this all that is needed to benefit wellbeing. Schools and local businesses participated in the challenge, sharing images on social media with the hashtag #Take10ToRead in order to promote the importance of reading.
Across the nation, 100,000 children and adults took part in the challenge.
As part of the Connecting Stories initiative, which aims to increase access to literary experiences to children in Suffolk, award-winning local author Anthony Horowitz virtually visited schools to introduce the challenge.
In the virtual event, Anthony shared his love of writing and reading with the children, explaining that he finds reading “a wonderful way to escape from the world into a safer, happier, more enjoyable place.” He encouraged the children to follow their passions and to always do what they love.
In a Q&A session with the children, Anthony revealed his favourite place to read is in bed, saying, “I start each day, every morning, I read a book – or part of a book, a chapter or page of a book, depending on how I’m feeling. In the morning I start by reading a bit of a story and when I get out of bed I feel happier.” He then introduced the #Take10ToRead challenge at 10am ending on the note, “the most important thing to do, is to enjoy it.”
Anthony Horowitz is the author of the best-selling Alex Rider and Power of Five book series’. The Alex Rider series has been adapted for television and the first season is available to watch on Amazon Prime. Anthony has won numerous awards including Children’s Book of the Year and the Red House Children’s Book Award.
James Kingett, Programme Manager, said: “I’m delighted at the success of Take 10 in Suffolk, it’s fantastic to see so many children and adults getting involved with Connecting Stories and taking time out of their day to read. I’m very much looking forward to working more closely with the people of Suffolk in the very near future as our activity in the county develops.”
Connecting Stories is a calendar full of exciting and engaging events, including author workshops, walk and talk trails, competitions and more.