{"id":46316,"date":"2025-08-05T05:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46316\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T05:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:23:10","slug":"peterborough-library-over-the-moon-with-book-appeal-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46316\/","title":{"rendered":"Peterborough library ‘over the moon’ with book appeal success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shariqua Ahmed<\/p>\n

BBC News, Peterborough<\/p>\n

\"FriendsFriends of Woodston Library<\/p>\n

The Summer Reading Challenge aims to encourage children aged between four and 11 to read six books during the six-week summer holiday<\/p>\n

An under-threat library has described the response to its book appeal as “heart-warming” after more than 1,000 were received.<\/p>\n

In June, Woodston Library in Peterborough, alongside St Augustine’s Junior School, launched a campaign to tackle the city’s low literacy rates ahead of the Summer Reading Challenge, a national initiative encouraging pupils to read six books during the summer holiday.<\/p>\n

Jennie Storey from Friends of Woodston Library said they had “books coming in from all over the country.”<\/p>\n

“We are over the moon with the result,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We worked with the school and invited book recommendations from the pupils themselves.<\/p>\n

“The school told us that the children were delighted to be involved in the project.<\/p>\n

“It was a really successful book appeal, and we have managed to stock up the shelves with new and inspiring reads.<\/p>\n

“It is really amazing, and this is the sort of initiative that could help make a real difference and boost literacy rates.”<\/p>\n

Sam Brunt, head teacher at the school, which is opposite the library, previously said he hoped the campaign would be a “major success”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FriendsFriends of Woodston Library<\/p>\n

The donated books will start their journey at Woodston Library but will be made available through the city’s library network<\/p>\n

In 2024, two-thirds (67%) of pupils in Peterborough<\/a> attained the national average for reading by the time they left primary school, compared with 74% nationally.<\/p>\n

This dropped to just 56% among Year 6 pupils<\/a> who received free school meals, according to a Peterborough City Council report from March.<\/p>\n

The appeal was made to overcome the impact of an eight-month book buying ban imposed by the council that has recently been lifted.<\/p>\n

\"FriendsFriends of Woodston Library<\/p>\n

Knitted hearts have replaced graffiti on the library walls to make the space more “more accessible and welcoming”, volunteers said<\/p>\n

Woodston Library is one of several libraries on a list of assets owned by the council that could be sold or repurposed to balance its budget.<\/p>\n

The authority has also proposed reducing the number of static libraries in the city from 10 to three to reduce its spending.<\/p>\n

Ms Storey, who has been campaigning to save the library, said: “We have several sold-out children’s events throughout the holidays.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what else much we can do with the community to show how much this library is needed and wanted.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shariqua Ahmed BBC News, Peterborough Friends of Woodston Library The Summer Reading Challenge aims to encourage children aged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-46316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}