How Children Help Shape the Summer Reading Challenge: The Power of Co-Production
Each year, the Summer Reading Challenge is built with children, not just for them. Co-production is an integral part of developing the theme and programme each year. This means children are always at the heart of what makes the Challenge fun and relevant.
We spoke to the Summer Reading Challenge team and this year’s illustrator, the award-winning Dapo Adeola, to learn how children’s voices brought this year’s Challenge to life.
How the co-production process works
The co-production process is our chance to hear directly from children. It’s an essential part of how we plan and develop the Challenge.
We ask children for their ideas and opinions on the proposed theme for the Challenge, and we use this feedback to help us develop the illustrations and storyline. We also show children the characters as they’re being developed, and work closely with our illustrator (this year, the talented Dapo Adeola) to develop the illustrations in line with children’s feedback.
Throughout August, September and October 2024, we gathered ideas from 741 children, as well as further families and library staff, from 30 library authorities across England, Scotland and Wales.
This is largely down to our fantastic library partners who have spent time gathering feedback from children in their local areas. We heard from children in both urban and rural environments in all regions of England, Scotland and Wales. In total, +81% more library authorities took part in the consultation process this year (compared with 2023). In addition to this, the Summer Reading Challenge team have run in-person consultation workshops with children.
The importance of co-production
As with many of our programmes, we know the value of having the voices of the people we’re trying to reach heard. We aim to make all our programmes diverse and inclusive, and involving children from the beginning helps us do that.
Bringing the Summer Reading Challenge theme to life: Q&A with Dapo Adeola
Tell us about the process of creating the Summer Reading Challenge characters.
“Working on the characters for the Summer Reading Challenge was a lot of fun. It was a great opportunity to explore a more fantastical side of storytelling that my book work has yet to allow me to do fully.
The first task I set myself was coming up with the fantastical creatures that would inhabit the world we’re building. I wanted them to be fantastical but also on theme, and that’s how I settled on Book Golems, Story Seeds and page winged butterflies etc.
After those characters were nailed down, it was just a case of coming up with an interesting and diverse cast of readers to accompany them. I came up with 38 unique and diverse child character designs in total, and the co-production feedback really helped narrow things down. The characters who didn’t make the main cast still turned up as background characters in the final pieces. So, nothing went to waste.”
What was your favourite element to create?
“My favourite characters to create were the Golems. It was my first time actually drawing something like that and I really enjoyed getting to lean into drawing something I’ve always enjoyed reading about in the books as a child. Creating the story garden itself was also fun, I really like how the paper dragon and the book plants came out.”
How Co-Production Improves Accessibility
Last year, we collaborated with the RNIB to develop Amelia, a character who is living with sight loss. The RNIB team conducted a workshop with children and families with lived experience of childhood vision impairment, speaking with just over 100 children and adults. The feedback from this workshop fed into the development of this character, and colleagues at the RNIB were involved in every key stage of the development process. For our 2025 theme, we were able to build on this knowledge and collaborated with the RNIB again to develop the character Robyn.
Download our guide to inclusive activities for libraries here.
Get involved
Children and families
Head to your local library to sign up, pick up your Challenge pack, and start your reading adventure today! You can also take part online—sign up here.
Teachers
Encourage your pupils to take part and celebrate their reading achievements over the summer. Sign up for our schools pack for exclusive classroom resources.
Library staff and partners
Keep spreading the word and inspiring children to join in. Your support helps bring the Challenge to life in every community.
As always, The Reading Agency are hugely grateful to our brilliant library partners who volunteered to gather feedback and ideas from children, families and library staff in their local area.
