We provide mini dictionaries as prizes to every prisoner who completes the Reading Agency’s Six Book Challenge (helped by Harper Collins).
Launched in 2008 by The Reading Agency, the Six Book Challenge is increasingly recognised as a key intervention using reading for pleasure to help tackle this country’s continuing skills deficit. As recently highlighted by an OECD study England’s 16- to 24-year-olds rank 22nd out of the 24 countries taking part for literacy skills. However, ninety percent of survey respondents say that they are more confident about reading after taking part in the Six Book Challenge, which invites them to pick six reads of their choice and complete a reading diary in order to get a certificate.
Prison librarians, without exception, are delighted with the dictionaries. One prison librarian said: “It’s so nice to be able to offer the dictionaries. It’s what we get most requests for, and we just can’t keep lending them out because they don’t always come back. This way we can get more dictionaries into the prison and reward those who complete the Six Book Challenge.”