Anthony Horowitz joins Peterborough children in reading challenge to promote literacy

Connecting Stories is a new initiative delivered by the National Literacy Trust.

Led by Peterborough Reads from the National Literacy Trust, the Arts Council England funded project aims to increase children and young people’s access to literary experiences and books.

In total, 24 publishers and more than 60 children’s authors are supporting the campaign through book donations, author workshops and virtual visits.

At 10am on Monday, children and adults across Peterborough stopped what they were doing to pick up a book and read for 10 minutes.

Schools and local businesses participated in the challenge, sharing images on social media with the hashtag #Take10ToRead in order to promote the importance of reading.

Across the nation, 100,000 children and adults took part in the challenge.

As part of the Connecting Stories initiative, which aims to increase access to literary experiences to children in Peterborough, award-winning author Anthony Horowitz virtually visited schools to introduce the challenge.

In the virtual event, Anthony shared his love of writing and reading with the children, explaining that he finds reading “a wonderful way to escape from the world into a safer, happier, more enjoyable place”.

He encouraged the children to follow their passions and to always do what they love.

In a Q&A session, Anthony revealed his favourite place to read is in bed, saying: “I start each day, every morning, I read a book – or part of a book, a chapter or page of a book, depending on how I’m feeling. In the morning I start by reading a bit of a story and when I get out of bed I feel happier.”

He then introduced the #Take10ToRead challenge at 10am ending on the note: “The most important thing to do is to enjoy it.”

Anthony Horowitz is the author of the best-selling Alex Rider and Power of Five book series.

The Alex Rider series has been adapted for television and the first season is available to watch on Amazon Prime.

Anthony has won numerous awards including Children’s Book of the Year and the Red House Children’s Book Award.

Connecting Stories includes author workshops, walk and talk trails and competitions.

It will soon hold a virtual exhibition to showcase creative writing from children across Peterborough.

To find out more information about the exhibition and future Connecting Stories events, visit: https://literacytrust.org.uk/communities/peterborough/families/connecting-stories/.