Fifty children in a County Durham town will each get a free book  - but they'll have to search for them.

The 'Big Barney Book Hunt' takes place in Barnard Castle on Tuesday, May 28 during half term.

The event, for children up to the age of 12, is being sponsored by the Friends of Barnard Castle Library, the books provided by Philippa Lyall in partnership with Usborne Books.

The Northern Echo: From left, Library Friends Kim Harding, Ros Evans and Chris Foote-Wood have 50 books to give away

“This is our first venture since we re-formed last year,” said Friends new chairman-secretary Chris Foote-Wood.

“One of our main objectives is to encourage children to read and to use the library regularly. If this is a success as we hope, we will consider having more book hunts."

Each child must be accompanied by an adult throughout. From 9.30am on the day, anyone who wants to enter should go to the Witham garden, by the library to get an entry form and a badge.

The Northern Echo: Click the image above for more local eventsClick the image above for more local events (Image: Supplied)

The book hunt will start promptly at 10am, when the parent/child teams will go and find one of 50 book tokens hidden in plain sight in the town centre. All tokens will be accessible from the street.

When found, they take the token to the library and exchange it for a free book, strictly one book per child. There is no entry fee.

Mr Foote-Wood added: “I expect the Book Hunt will be over by 12noon. If more than 50 children turn up, we will offer priority entry to our next one."

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Philippa Lyall, Independent Usborne Partner said, 'It's been fantastic working in conjunction with the Friends of Barnard Castle Library, in this, my third book hunt round the town.

"It's a lovely way to get children excited about books, as to encourage a love of reading is so very important.

"As it's book tokens that are being sought this time, it means the children will be able to choose the book they wish to take home to keep. Happy hunting.’