"Today's lifestyle is leading to a decline in quality of time spent by parents with their children, adding that parents had a big role to play when it comes to enhancing their children's literacy skills,"  – The Malta Independent, April, 2013

The proportion of children reading for pleasure has declined as their time is crowded with other activities, and more than a fifth never read in their own time. - National Literacy Trust, April 2012

In Malta a study, carried out in April 2011 across 96 schools, revealed that Maltese school children lagged behind on basic reading skills. - Times of Malta

 

I am sure that all who read these quotes will agree that these are very worrying statements. The quality and quantity of time that youth of today are spending reading for leisure has, unfortunately, been declining in recent years.

Initiating a simple Internet search regarding reading trends throughout the world will also show that this downward trend seems to be spreading globally. As an educator and a children’s author this is a concerning situation. In light of this, work was initiated over the past number of months in order to put together a fun challenge to get children to spend some quality time reading for leisure and in turn, enjoy themselves doing so.

Open to children residing in Malta and Gozo between the ages of 8 and 13, the concept behind The Ponds of Wonder Challenge is threefold:

to help make reading for leisure fun and a viable past time choice,

to provide further stimulus for reading through the challenge and

to provide parents and teachers, as primary stakeholders, an opportunity to increase their children/student’s interest in reading.

Children participating in this activity will receive the following items via the email address they register with:

a digital copy of the book, The Ponds of Wonder, water-marked with their unique contestant number.

They will also receive the challenge form to fill in as they read through the story and

The Ponds of Wonder lottery form.

All completed challenge and lottery forms will have to be sent in and received by the 10th of May, 2014. Challenge forms will be corrected and lottery forms of correctly completed challenge forms will then be placed in a draw with the possibility of winning one of the prizes listed on the novel’s website, www.thepondsofwonder.com.

However, the challenge doesn’t stop there.

Parents, teachers and schools will already experience a degree of success watching children spend quality time reading in the coming weeks, however it doesn’t stop there. Their dedication and hard work towards giving their children/student the best care and dedication possible, will also be acknowledged through the challenge. Participating children will also have to include the name of their parent, teacher and school on their lottery form. If their form is drawn for the first, second or third prize, their parent, teacher and school will also win a prize. These prizes are also listed on the novel’s website. It’s a win-win situation for all who participate.

I cannot close this article without extending my thanks to the number of sponsors who helped make this challenge possible. Their dedication and commitment to the educational and creative development of today’s youth, through reading, is clearly visible through their participation in this event. A complete list of the sponsors can be found on the novel’s website in addition to all of the forms pertaining to this challenge.

Participation forms can be downloaded from the novel’s website and sent in to the following postal address:

The Ponds of Wonder Challenge

P.O. Box 18

St. Paul’s Bay