Children’s Author Says ‘Books Are Like Buckets Filled With Magic’

A spectacular event is being held at Hull Central Library at the end of this month to celebrate a reading initiative that has seen hundreds of children pick up a book over the summer holidays.

fREADom Quest was launched at the start of the summer, encouraging children to read during the school holidays.

To mark 250 years of the modern circus, acrobats and jugglers went into schools to promote the reading challenge.

Children that have taken part in fREADom Quest have been invited to Hull City Hall on Sunday 23 September for a special celebratory event.

The event will continue the circus theme with dazzling acrobat performances.

Poet and children’s author A.F. Harold is speaking at the event that will celebrate Hull’s bookworms.

He said:

“Summer days are full of hours and hours, and there’s only so much football, Fortnite and feeding you can do.

“Reading is a perfect way to fill up the rest of them – travelling to amazing places and meeting fascinating people, scaring yourself silly or laughing yourself sick, exploring outer space or learning how a duck works – all for the price of a bus ticket to the library.

“A reading challenge, like fREADom Quest, that encourages kids to open a book and insert its contents into their skulls can’t possibly be a bad thing. Skulls are empty until your fill them up, and books are like buckets filled with magic that don’t weigh as much as real buckets filled with water, and won’t get you in as much trouble if your drop them on the sofa. Well done, Hull.”

The school with the most readers will also receive £500 worth of books for their school’s library.
Councillor Peter Clark, portfolio holder for learning, skills and safeguarding children, said:

“It is vitally important to keep children engaged in reading during the long summer break when they are not in school.

“fREADom Quest does a brilliant job promoting this throughout the city, and I hope that all the children who have taken part this summer enjoy what I’m sure will be a fantastic celebration at Hull City Hall.”

The Hull fREADom Quest was founded in 2017 as a response to wanting a bespoke summer reading challenge that allowed Hull Libraries to respond to the needs of young people in Hull. It is funded by the James Reckitt Library Trust.