Meadowhall launches summer reading campaign, including live storytelling session

The ‘Read More, Feel Better’ campaign is designed to help children across the community to continue reading for fun over the summer holidays, with a selection of top tips and advice for parents on the Meadowhall website, including how to create an effective reading space at home and the best books for supporting children’s wellbeing.

Meadowhall and the National Literacy Trust will also be hosting a live storytelling session for children on Wednesday 11th August, at 11am, with three expert storytellers sharing exciting and engaging tales for children aged five to 11. Families have been advised to keep an eye on Meadowhall’s social feeds for all the details of that session.

The campaign was launched after new research by the trust revealed that 47 per cent of children in Yorkshire and the Humber claim reading makes them feel better.

As part of the campaign, Meadowhall has donated 50 books each to Burngreave Foodbank and St Saviours. This follows a series of donations the centre has made to local foodbanks and charities throughout the pandemic.

‘Read More, Feel Better’ is being delivered as part of the award-winning Young Readers Programme, an initiative run by Meadowhall’s co-owner, British Land, in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.

Jonathan Douglas is chief executive of the National Literacy Trust, a charity dedicated to improving the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills of those who need it most, giving them the best possible chance of success in school, work and life.

He said: “Our research shows that almost half of children across the country said that reading helps them relax and feel better. Not only does this campaign help to support children’s wellbeing, it’s also a great way to ensure their continued literary development in a period of their education which has been so disruptive.”

Darren Pearce, centre director at Meadowhall, said: “The Read More, Feel Better campaign is a great initiative. The events of the last 15 months have meant that we wanted to go even further to provide some support for parents over the summer holidays, and to highlight how doing little things can have such a positive impact.”