Marvellous Makers – The Essex Summer Reading Challenge 2024

Robin is a big reader, with her favorite store being Waterstones and her favorite hobby being “reading comic books”, we are always looking for new ways to encourage and support her love of reading. For as long as she enjoyed reading, we have been signing her up for all sorts of reading related events in Essex. We’ve read to dogs, gone to plays that are based on books, and have taken her to the library at any chance we have gotten. The Summer and Winter reading challenge each year is a real highlight, as it does change so much and is so rewarding. This summer, the Essex Reading Challenge is called Marvellous Makers, and there is a fantastic display right at our local library in Harlow Town, which runs until September 7th.

Marvellous Makers takes the story of a group of children who all have their own hobbies and interests. When you go to your local, participating library, they have a big table right at the front were you can sign up for free (all you need is your child’s library card)! Once you have signed up, you are given a task. This year, it’s to read six books and document them in the provided sheet. Last year, there were some drawing challenges and challenges around reading to siblings or stuffed animals, but this year it was a bit more simplistic. All in the kid’s section of our library, there are signs about the reading challenge as well as characters that you can find hidden amongst the books. We spotted them all, with Robin checking them off her list, before reading about each one on the paper. Then, Robin picked out a comic book and we got to work reading.

She doesn’t read particularly fast and we do have a busy summer, so it was a couple of weeks before all six books were read and documented! We then headed back to our library to hand them in. Depending on who is working at the table for Marvellous Makers, you might need to have your child answer some questions on the books we read. There was also a bonus challenge to draw a book cover of your favorite book that you read, which Robin of course did and was happy to show off. We completed all of the reading before handing in the sheet, but you can hand it in one at a time, to gain stickers that then go into the map area of the sheet.

As we had finished reading them all, we got all the stickers at once and Robin went to work completing the puzzle. This big picture of all of the Marvellous Makers have individual questions about what each person needs. One person needs something to help him construct a plan, another needs a speaker to play music – you’ll need to place the answers, which are stickers, on a tool box with corresponding numbers. Robin had fun solving what everyone needed before diving into fixing the picture. The other stickers you get are actually ones that complete the pictures, coloring in places that should be filled in, if you place them on perfectly. Robin is very deliberate and careful with her sticker placement! After she had finished placing all of her stickers, she showed off the form to the librarian who gave her a certificate with her name on it and a wooden Marvellous Makers pendant. These pendants do change each year, so she was excited to add them to her collection!

It is worth noting that there are a bunch of QR codes on the sheet as well, that give more bonus challenges. These ones seemed to be around music and creating music, with one being a dance challenge and another being a “bang pots and pans” type challenge. Robin is a strict reader, so wasn’t interested in these, but they can be used as useful prompts to keep your child engaged with the reading challenge! We are so looking forward to the winter one as well.

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