Local children have clocked up more than 34,000 minutes of reading during the school holidays, thanks to Camden Council’s Summer Reading Challenge.

The annual program brings education to life every summer holidays by challenging local school students to read for 15 minutes every day of the school holidays.

Mayor of Camden, Cr Theresa Fedeli, said the challenge had 173 participants this year.

“Reading from a young age is extremely important for language building as well as being an exercise for the brain,” Cr Fedeli said.

“The Summer Reading Challenge was designed to address the ‘summer slide’, which sees children regress in reading ability during their longest school break of the year.

“The children who took part this year did an amazing job to complete 574 hours of reading time.

“I hope they continue building their knowledge by reading books throughout 2020 and the rest of their lives.”

Children can continue to read throughout the year with thousands of books available to borrow from Camden, Narellan and Oran Park Libraries.

Membership to all Council libraries is available free to everyone, even if you don’t live in the Camden area.

For more information on Camden Council Library Services’, visit library.camden.nsw.gov.au