Summer Reading Challenge 2025
Books, books and more books...
As long-term readers will know1, I despair of the Reading Challenge in our local library. Accordingly, each year I make my own for my kids, involving not just books, but maps, clues and prizes. As the White Knight in Alice Through the Looking Glass might say, ‘It’s my own invention.’
I won’t claim that this format exists nowhere else in the world - but at the least, I’ve never seen it elsewhere. For me, the appeal is that it combines a large element of choice - the books can be read in any order, with no requirement to complete Bronze before reading Gold books - with a steady progression, in which each book you read advances you one step along the path to your goal.
There are two challenges here: one Percy Jackson themed, for Eldest (11) and the other Hobbit themed, for Youngest (7). With a bit of tweaking, they can probably be adjusted to any age - or indeed for a spouse, flat-mate or friend.2 Substack sadly has an aversion to most file formats other than PDFs, but if anyone wants a Word file then message me and I can give you one.3
Let’s start with the maps!
Eldest has a map based on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief:
And Youngest a map based on The Hobbit:4
See the trail and those numbers on each map? Each time a book is read - regardless of category, regardless of medal - this lets a sticker be placed on the next square, moving them one step closer to their destination.
But what about the asterisks, I hear you ask? Each time a square with an asterisk is reached, they are able to open a special envelope. These mainly contain positive rewards but occasionally - when it reflects something bad on the map - it is a forfeit, such as having to read a book to your sibling before you can continue.
Eldest Envelopes
Youngest Envelopes
And here is the downloadable file:
But wait, I here you say, what about the actual books? What books do they have to read?
Eldest’s categories are here:
Youngest is currently a little5 obsessed with Greek mythology, and so the categories for this reflect that:
And again, the downloadable file:
And what about the prizes? I typically use a bronze, silver or gold sticker for each category, and, at the end of the summer, a £5/£10/£20 book voucher, depending on whether they’ve achieved Bronze, Silver or Gold - but you should feel free to tailor to your budget and inclination. Or nothing at all, if you believe extrinsic rewards are bad.6
I hope at least some readers will be inspired to adapt and use. And please do share and pass on with anyone else who you think (or whose children you think!) might enjoy.
I did wonder to post this year’s, but two-thirds of you are new subscribers since last July (thank you!), and hopefully long-time readers will enjoy the new maps and clues.
Though in this case you may wish to make the prizes a little more sophisticated than ‘you get to go on the trampoline with the sprinklers on’ (or perhaps not)!
Via the contact button here: https://www.edrith.co.uk/about
Though they kind of also want the Percy Jackson one, having got into it since I made the maps - there’s always next year!
And by a little, I mean, like the 7 year old who will correct you on the pronunciation of five-syllable dinosaur names, but in this case answering ‘Stheno’ when asked for a named monster, knowing that Athena did have a mother, called Metis, and correcting you when you say you don’t think Theseus is the son of Poseidon because, *of course* he had two fathers simultaneously (Is it me or is Greek mythology not deeply weird)?
In general, I wholly subscribe to this philosophy, but I am willing to relax my principles when the prize for reading books is MORE BOOKS!!!!
Love the 'a book you've started before and failed to finish' category. I'm unsure whether this is one I should challenge myself with though (as a kid you definitely have books you started too early, and don't want to return to, but if you did you'd find you've now grown into it. As a adult it may just be throwing good money after bad.)
Youngest's envelope 6 involves reading a book to youngest ... is this intended, or have you reused an earlier year's work for Eldest without adaption?