CHILDREN and parents in North Yorkshire could win a stack of books and personalised artwork worth £250 in an extreme reading challenge urging them to read while skating, playing football or hanging on monkey bars.

Youngsters and adults alike are being urged to read in unlikely places in an extreme readers competition, hosted by literacy campaign Our Stories. 

The competition, delivered by the National Literacy Trust and the North Yorkshire Coast Opportunity Area, has been licked off by campaigns officer Hannah Riley who has been spotted reading-on-wheels at the skate park.

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Volunteers, known as Literacy Champions in the community, are helping to promote the competition and are hiding books near local landmarks to encourage people to get involved.

Children should take their own extreme reading photo or video – it could be anything from reading on the swings, handing upside down, or whilst showing off football tricks.

The winning entry will have their image recreated as an illustration by Scarborough-based artist Simon Whittaker.

This initiative is part of a wider campaign to share stories across Filey, Whitby and Scarborough in order to tackle low literacy at a community level.

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In 2019, almost 1 in 3 (29.9 per cent) 11-year-olds in Yorkshire and the Humber left primary school unable to read well, the lowest of any region in England.

In Scarborough, this rose to over half (54.1 per cent) of disadvantaged children being unable to read well.

However, research from the National Literacy Trust shows that 1 in 4 children enjoyed reading more during lockdown than before, which the reading cha;lenge hopes to harness.

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The competition is open to children and their families living in Filey, Whitby or Scarborough. Entries should be submitted to hannah.riley@literacytrust.org.uk or via the Facebook page by Monday, January 4 2020.