Read to the Beat – and We’re Dancing Along!
Something very exciting is happening in libraries across the UK this summer, and we are thrilled to be part of it.
The Reading Agency has launched its 2026 Summer Reading Challengeand this year’s theme – Read to the Beat – is one that feels made for us. Music and stories have always belonged together. Think of the rhythm of a brilliant sentence, the way a great tale sweeps you away like your favourite song, the moment a story makes your heart beat like a melody you can’t shake. At Storytimemusic has inspired some of our most magical stories over the years – and this summer, we’re celebrating that connection in the best possible way.
In collaboration with, packed with musical activities, games, and brand new stories as well as some much-loved classics. It’s tucked inside your Summer Reading Challenge pack, available at libraries all over the country – so run, skip, cartwheel, or moonwalk your way there and pick up your copy.
Readers have already started to sign up to take part in the challenge at their local library earlier this month, on Super Sign-Up Saturday (4th July) – but if you missed it, don’t worry. You can still sign up to take part, and there is absolutely no better day to start than today. Remember, every day this summer is a reading day!
This year, for the very first time, children can set their own personalised reading goals for the challenge – whether that means diving into a new genre, discovering audiobooks, exploring poetry, or losing themselves in graphic novels. Authors, musicians and celebrity ambassadors will be popping up at libraries across the UK throughout the summer for free events and activities too.
We all believe that every child deserves access to great stories – whoever they are and wherever they live. That’s been Storytime’s mission from the start, and we feel that in the National Year of Reading we really have a chance to join forces with awesome people that believe in it as much as we do! We you get together you can make wonders – and we couldn’t be more chuffed to support The Reading Agency, Universal Music and The British Arts Council to make this possible! That’s why partnerships like this one matter so much to us.
The Summer Reading Challenge reaches children right across the UK through our local libraries, some of the most welcoming, inclusive spaces families have. Being part of it and helping to put brilliant stories into children’s hands during the long summer holidays is exactly what we’re here for.
This year, it’s time to go all in. Let’s get the whole country reading, singing, and Storytime-ing this summer – see you at the library!
More information on how to join on the website: https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/