Adele encouraged the audience by desribing what reading has meant to her over the years, eventually leading to her becoming a full-time writer. "It's a great privilege to be an ambassador of the Six Book Challenge, a brilliant scheme that successfully engages less confident or reluctant readers in their thousands, helping individuals and ultimately helping our country to be a better place. It's as big as that."

She had some great advice for people who find it a struggle to keep reading. "If you try to eat a cake all at once, you end up not liking cake any more. You don't have to finish a whole chapter in a night; just read a page and then the next, and then another the next night. ... It will be a lovely exploration, a positive thing and a way of empowering you. If you stick at it, you will be more articulate in your community, you will be able to read your own contracts at work or the manual for setting up your satellite TV."

Adele also set herself a challenge for 2012 - to conquer her fear of swimming and complete 100 metres. The Reading Agency will be keeping her to that!

After a lively Q and A session, Blossom Brooks (see pic) explained that she will be taking the Challenge for the third year running and told everyone to 'give it a go!'. Learners Rupert Mikely, Leila Pakvar, Nicola Moses and Clifton Lewis (pictured left to right with Adele below) also revealed that they would be taking part in the Challenge again.

Brent Libraries are star performers for the Six Book Challenge having enrolled over 500 participants in 2011, 111 of whom completed six books or more. Librarian Adele Finch and her colleagues are working with tutors from BACES to increase the number of completers for 2012. "There is no doubt that the Six Book Challenge enriches the learning opportunities that we are able to offer our learners at BACES," agreed Diana Teesdale, head of Skills for Life for Brent Council.

Photographs by Isabelle Plasschaert.

The adults all attend a local community centre and the sessions were planned by Judith Robinson and Maz Iqbal from Kirklees Libraries in partnership with Community Support Officer Sally Hanson.

The participants were presented with their Six Book Challenge certificates at a celebration event. Their feedback has been really positive:

"I like books about animals and have borrowed books about hamsters, rabbits, dogs and parrots." Kate

"I didn't know where to find the books I like in the library but now I know where to find them" Kevin

"Coming to the library has been really great for the group," comments Sally Hanson.
"We like to get out and about and use local facilities and as the library is on our doorstep we've been glad to do the Six Book Challenge here. We'll certainly continue to visit to borrow books and use the facilities. Using books to stimulate speaking and listening activities has been fantastic. We have had some very lively discussions!"

Judith Robinson agrees: "It's been a very positive experience for us and for them."

Inhabitants of Stockton wanting to take part need to register, take a diary and choose their first book. They can read more than one book at once but must fill in their diary and get a library stamp for each book completed. The draw will take place at the beginning of July and certificates will be given out to everyone who has taken part and read two books or more.

This special Challenge has been promoted widely across the council and at local council sports venues as part of the 'culture events in sporting venues and sporting events in culture venues' initiative for the Olympics. It is also part of a string of challenges that the council is promoting to the public in Stockton during the year. The ain is to involve 450 participants and with over 100 registered so far, they're off to a flying start!

Please contact us if your organisation is linking the Six Book Challenge to an Olympic theme. Our own Summer Reading Challenge for children, this year themed as Story Lab, is part of the Cultural Olympiad so anyone running the Six Book Challenge in parallel with this will certainly benefit from some Olympic fever. An increasing number of library services are engaging parents and carers in the Six Book Challenge alongside the children's Challenge as a way to add a family dimension.

The promotion was a success with over 40 people signing up to take the challenge. Many seemed keen to get started straight away with our Quick Reads selections and general fiction flying off the shelves, so I've got high hopes and fingers crossed for a very successful challenge!

Each year we ask you to encourage your participants to complete a brief survey before and after the Challenge - see below. We've made these even shorter this year and we can provide them as printable versions if you contact us. However I'm afraid we have to ask you to upload any results to the online survey as we just don't have the capacity. There's one snag though - you have to do the following to allow for more than one entry from the same computer:

Open Internet Explorer
Go to Tools
Then Internet Options
On the General Tab under Browsing History click the Delete button.
Then click Delete Cookies
When asked if you are sure click Yes

Six Book Challenge 2012 Pre-Challenge Survey

Six Book Challenge 2012 Post-Challenge Survey

We also invite tutors to give their views on the impact of the Challenge on their learners.

Six Book Challenge 2012 Tutor Survey

We also ask all participating organisations to complete a full data return by Friday 6 July 2012. All completed forms received by this date will be put into a prize draw for new books received from publishers through our Reading Partners scheme. It will also help us decide which organisations are eligible for our gold, silver and bronze awards for completion rates.

Please take note of the information required at the outset so that you can collect it as the Challenge progresses. You'll be glad to know that these surveys are MUCH shorter than in previous years!

Public Libraries Survey

Learning Providers Survey (FE colleges, adult & community learning, family learning, children's centres, ESOL, WEA, private or third sector training providers, schools)

Prisons Survey

Workplaces Survey

Headline results from 2011
- 18,000 registered for the Challenge - a third up on 2010, approximately 10,000 through libraries, 3000 through prisons, 2500 direct through colleges and another 2500 through workplaces
- An estimated 1052 libraries took part from around 125 library services across the UK
- 30% men and 70% women took part through libraries
- At least 40 different nationalities represented indicating strong involvement by ESOL learners
- An estimated 3488 people joined libraries to take part in 2011.
- An estimated 17,000 people have completed the Challenge since it began.
- 78% of participants completing post-Challenge surveys said that they enjoyed reading more having taken part in the Six Book Challenge and 67% said they more felt more confident about reading.

Please contact us if you would like to see the full evaluation report for the Six Book Challenge 2011.

Guidance
How to run the Six Book Challenge 2012

Six Book Challenge 2012 materials guidance

Six Book Challenge 2012 Guidance for colleges and learning providers

Six Book Challenge 2012 Guidance for prisons and YOIs

Six Book Challenge 2012 Guidance for workplaces

We also have several case studies from public libraries running the Six Book Challenge.

In response to headline findings from the Government's latest Skills for Life Survey for England, here are two further briefing documents:

The Reading Agency's tools to support adult literacy

Public libraries' contribution to improving adult literacy

And here are two booklets produced in partnership with the TUC's learning arm unionlearn which showcase how the Challenge has been run in workplaces with library and union support.

Six Book Challenge at Work booklet.pdf

The Reading Agency Getting Reading to Work booklet.pdf

Templates

Here are templates branded for the Six Book Challenge 2012. Again, please contact us if you'd like these in a different format. We've put them in Word so that you can tailor for your own circumstances.

Six Book Challenge 2012 Registration Form

Six Book Challenge 2012 Participation Record

Six Book Challenge 2012 Key Dates Planner

And here is a powerpoint you might like to tweak and share with potential partner organisations.

Running the Six Book Challenge 2012

Updates

Here are copies of our regular email updates to participating organisations

Six Book Challenge Update No. 1

Six Book Challenge Update No. 2

Six Book Challenge Update No. 3

Six Book Challenge 2012 materials (available from the Reading Agency Shop as a pack or as top-ups for individual items)

• 50 reading diaries
• 50 certificates
• 50 participant leaflets
• 100 bookmarks
• 25 A5 information fliers
• A3 posters
• A4 posters

We can also supply the following on request to organisations who have purchased materials:
• the Six Book Challenge logo
• a downloadable Participation Certificate
• pdfs of A3 and A4 empty belly posters

Incentives
We also have the following incentives for purchase from the Reading Agency Shop. These are branded with the Six Book Challenge logo but with no date.
Pack of 10 Six Book Challenge mugs
Pack of 50 Six Book Challenge key rings
Pack of 50 Six Book Challenge notepads
Pack of 25 Six Book Challenge cotton bags
Pack of 100 Six Book Challenge pens