Reading Champions Challenges: Book Talk

Resource type: Projects, programmes and workshops

Price band: Free

Key stage: KS2, KS3

Region(s): All of UK

The Reading Champions Challenges are a programme of termly challenges and competitions for pupils aged 5-14. They have been designed to support the development of reading stamina, to increase reading diversity and encourage reading for pleasure.

Each Reading Champions Challenge is themed and comes with a set of supporting teaching resources that include:

Teacher guidance notes.
Recommended reading lists.
Posters, templates and certificates.

Kick-start the summer term with the Book Talk Challenge, a challenge designed to develop a reading for pleasure community by encouraging pupils to talk about books and recommend titles that they have enjoyed to their peers. The aim of the challenge is to cover the Reading Tree poster with the students’ reading achievements and discover the group’s most popular title and genre.

Cost: Free with NLT Basic Membership (also free).

About National Literacy Trust: NLT is an independent literacy charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life. The charity runs literacy programmes, CPD training courses for teachers, and provides online resources and tools to its members. It also undertakes research into all aspects of literacy and campaigns to raise awareness of literacy issues.

About Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society: The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society is a not-for-profit membership organisation that ensures that its author members receive money when their work is copied or used by a third party.

Further resources:

Schools that take part in the Book Talk challenge can enter the associated competition for the chance to win a range of book-related prizes. The closing date for entries will be 27th June 2025.
Read more about the research underpinning the role of informal book talk in promoting reading for pleasure on the OU Reading for Pleasure website. There are also free audit tools and classroom strategies to download as well as examples of practice from teachers around the country.
Catch up on a series of webinars created by World Book Day® and the OU Reading for Pleasure team exploring some of the barriers to reading for pleasure and ways to overcome them.
Watch this recording of a School Library Association webinar exploring the potential of audiobooks to promote whole-school reading engagement and student well-being.
You can explore previous Reading Champion Challenges for more ideas on how to promote reading for pleasure.