More than 25,000 Tasmanian students have signed up to read more this winter, taking on the Premier’s Reading Challenge in a statewide push to build stronger literacy skills and a love of reading.
A total of 157 schools, 15 home education families and 25,387 students have registered for the challenge, now in its 18th year.
It runs from June 22 until August 30.
The challenge is open to students from kindergarten to year 12 across government, non-government and home education settings.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff launched this year’s challenge at the Launceston Library, alongside Education Minister Jo Palmer and Libraries Tasmania’s Mary Brooke.
“Reading is such an important skill for Tasmanians to thrive in all aspects of their lives,” Rockliff said.
“It’s part of our broader Lifting Literacy Plan, which ensures every student leaves school with the reading skills they need for life.”
Palmer said the challenge was about taking part and beating your own goals, not competing with others.
“We want Tasmania to be a state where children not only go to school to learn to read, but they’re in love with reading,” she said.
She said it did not matter what children chose to read, from comics and magazines to stories about unicorns, dogs or science projects.
The challenge also crosses over with Book Week in August, themed A Symphony of Stories.
Brooke said library staff were keen to help young readers find something they enjoyed, whether graphic novels or books tied to popular culture.
She said audiobooks were a good way to get reluctant readers started.
“I always say to everybody, audiobooks count as well,” she said.
“So if young people find it difficult in the early stages to open up a physical book or an e-book, audiobooks are always a really good option.”
Students can register through their school or at the Libraries Tasmania website.
