On Friday 8 October, 165,000 children and adults in schools, communities and businesses across the UK took part in our #Take10ToRead Challenge as part of our Connecting Stories initiative with Arts Council England, proudly supported by Wesleyan.
The challenge aims to inspire wellbeing-boosting reading habits ahead of World Mental Health Day (Sunday 10 October) – and to encourage participants to carry on reading long after the day. It comes as our research shows that more than 2 in 5 (44.6%) children say that reading makes them feel better.
At 10am on Friday 8 October, children and adults stopped what they were doing, picked up books, comics, magazines, or newspapers and read for 10 minutes. Schools, authors, publishers, and businesses shared images on social media with the hashtag #Take10ToRead inspiring their communities to get reading every day.
As part of the Connecting Stories initiative, which addresses the literacy attainment gap across the UK, school children nationwide were invited to a digital events with authors promoting their positive experiences of supporting wellbeing through reading and writing.
Primary school students were treated to a live experience with award-winning author Tom Percival, who give pupils a sneak peek of his brand new book Silas and the Marvellous Misfits, and secondary school students experienced an event with acclaimed novelist Louisa Reid, discussing her book Gloves Off.
Tom Percival, said:
“Reading has been massively important to me throughout my whole life. One of the best things about my job as an author and illustrator is when I hear that a child who maybe wasn’t so interested in reading has got into one of my books. I believe that all it takes for anyone to become a reader is finding the right book for them.
"I'm really happy to be supporting the Connecting Stories and Take 10 initiative. The way I see it, encouraging young people to read is a great way of building empathy, which has never been more important. #Take10ToRead is an excellent way of reaching young people from many different communities across the UK, and it’s great to be able to support them and help foster a love of reading.”