Premiers’ Reading Challenge 2019

Now in its 15th year, the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge continues to help instill a love of reading for life.

Students in Years 3–10 must read at least 15 books in the six months from February to September in order to complete the challenge. For prep–Year 2 students, the challenge is to read or experience 30 books.

More than 12,000 books feature on the list, 200 of them new. Children can read picture books, short stories, poems or non-fiction books in any language as part of the Challenge.

Children who have not yet started school are challenged to read or experience 40 books with the help of their families as part of the Premiers’ Reading Challenge for the Early Years.

A key Education State target is increasing the number of Year 5 and Year 9 students reaching the highest levels of achievement in reading by 25 per cent, and the Challenge is an important literacy initiative in striving to meet this target.

Last year, 266,950 participants in 965 local schools, 1,947 early childhood services and homes across the state got lost in the pages of more than 4.4 million books.

Since the Challenge began in 2005, more than 2.8 million students in Victoria have read nearly 49 million books. For more information, visit: education.vic.gov.au/prc.

Melbourne-based children’s illustrator Adele Thomas designed this year’s Premiers’ Reading Challenge posters, inspired by the taglines ‘Spark their imagination’ for the early years, ‘Reach new heights’ for primary level and ‘Expand your universe’ for secondary level.