Portsmouth children celebrate Summer Reading Challenge achievements at Southsea Castle

Hundreds of children from Portsmouth who took part in this year's Summer Reading Challenge headed to Southsea Castle this weekend for a special event celebrating their achievements.

The challenge was run locally through Portsmouth Libraries, encouraging children to keep reading over the summer holidays. Children set their own reading targets and borrowed a wide range of books from their local library, including picture books, poetry, graphic novels, eBooks and audiobooks.

This year's theme, Read to the Beat, celebrated the link between reading, stories and music. Throughout the summer, children visited libraries across the city, discovered new books and took part in free activities.

Almost 2,000 children who completed the challenge (a 16 per cent increase on 2025's participation) and their families were invited to the annual celebration event at Southsea Castle, which took place on Sunday, September 27 from 11am to 4pm.

They received a medal to mark their achievement and enjoyed a range of free activities throughout the day. Families took part in themed trails, musical themed craft activities, African drum workshops, story times and character appearances inspired by Spider-Man, Minecraft and K-Pop Demon Hunters. Children who were unable to attend can still collect their medal from the library where they registered for the challenge.

Cllr Steve Pitt, Leader of Portsmouth City Council and Cabinet Member responsible for culture, said: "The Summer Reading Challenge is a fantastic way to encourage children to keep reading over the summer holidays while having fun and discovering new books.

It's great to see so many young people across Portsmouth taking part again this year. I'd like to congratulate all the children who took part in the challenge and thank parents, carers, library staff and volunteers for helping make it another successful year. I hope everyone enjoyed the celebration event at Southsea Castle."

The Summer Reading Challenge is run nationally by The Reading Agency and is free to join through Portsmouth Libraries and takes place every year. It helps children keep up their reading over the school holidays while encouraging them to discover new books and enjoy reading for pleasure.