NEARLY 10,000 children in Gloucestershire took part in this year’s Summer Reading Challenge.

The event saw children aged from four to twelve years old sign up to read 6 or more books over their summer holiday with 9,578 visiting their local library.

A record 637 children joined a library in order to take part and young volunteers aged up to 24 also flocked to the scheme with more helping out in Gloucestershire than anywhere else in the UK.

As a result the library service has been given a £500 prize which will be spent on buying new books which young people will help choose as well as library craft materials.

They helped in a variety of ways such as enrolling children into the Summer Reading Challenge and encouraging them to read six books over the summer, although many children read more than the minimum six.

The theme of this year's Summer Reading Challenge was the Mythical Maze where children could meet fantastical creatures from the world of legend and mythology, including a yeti and a Minotaur.

Gloucestershire County Council cabinet member for libraries Cllr Andrew Gravells said: "I'm really pleased to hear that this year's Summer Reading Challenge was a resounding success.

"We had almost 10,000 young children take part and more young people signed up to volunteer than in anywhere else in the country which is something Gloucestershire should be very, very proud of.

Phoebe, a volunteer at Cheltenham Library said she enjoyed volunteering and it had inspired her to do more in the future.

She said: "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work within the library and help promote reading to so many people. It was great to see so many children completing the challenge.

"I have really enjoyed working with all of the other library staff; they were really kind and helpful with answering any queries I had."