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This summer we're excited to bring you the 2025 Summer Reading Challenge, Story Garden. This year's challenge from The Reading Agency is all about adventures in nature and the great outdoors - inspiring children to tap into a world of imagination through reading and to celebrate adventure, fantasy and storytelling through nature and the great outdoors.

You'll be able to find new books to fire your imagination and explore the magical connection between storytelling and nature. We hope you’ll also enjoy the free activities at the libraries. We can't wait to get outside and discover nature!

The Summer Reading Challenge is developed by The Reading Agency and delivered in partnership with public libraries.

Message from The Reading Agency

The Summer Reading Challenge is a FREE holiday activity for children. It’s all about reading for fun, aiming to improve children’s reading skills and confidence. The Challenge is the UK’s biggest free reading for pleasure programme for children and runs every year throughout the summer holidays!

Children’s reading skills can ‘dip’ during the long summer holidays without regular access to books and encouragement to read for pleasure. The Summer Reading Challenge helps to tackle this by regularly reaching over 700,000 children each year, motivating them to visit the library and keep reading during the holidays, which, in turn, vitally boosts children’s confidence and maintains their reading skills in preparation for the new school term.

Sign up at Milton Keynes Libraries

The Summer Reading Challenge takes place during the summer holidays and Milton Keynes City Libraries are running the challenge from 18 July until 6 September.

You can sign up at your local library from Friday 18 July 2025 and read any six books of your choice to collect special stickers. After reading your six books, you'll be presented with a medal and a certificate of achievement - all for FREE (while stocks last).

The Challenge online

There’s a digital platform too!  Sign up online at summerreadingchallenge.org.uk where you can use the book sorter to discover new books, find fun reading activities, play games, watch videos and write book reviews.

We have recruited many young volunteers to help us over the summer and we hope you’ll take the time to chat with them about the books you’ve read.

Enjoy choosing your books and be sure to complete the challenge by reading and recording six books before the closing date of 6 September 2025.

Remember – this is reading for fun and you can read whatever library books you like and however you’d like to read them – whether its stories, fact books, poetry, joke books, picture books, graphic novels, audiobooks or eBooks.

Thank you to everyone who has applied to be a Summer Reading Challenge volunteer - we're not accepting any more applications for this year.

[Story Garden illustrations by Dapo Adeola and logo artwork © The Reading Agency 2025.]

Milton Keynes City Council Libraries contact information

Milton Keynes Central Library, 555 Silbury Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 3HL