A READING challenge has seen thousands of children in Lancashire plough through books this summer.

The Summer Reading Challenge launched last month by Lancashire Library Service has led to 12,000 children turning to books since July.

Children who take part are challenged to read a library book a week, with many already completing the challenge half way to the deadline.

More than 1,000 children have already finished the challenge of reading all six books with four weeks still to go.

Lancashire’s Summer Reading Challenge this year has a spooky theme where children who visit libraries are introduced to the characters of Creepy House.

Children meet Tilda, Saeed, Ollie, Rhys, Zoe, Liv and Baskerville the dog and told how to explore the three floors of the Creepy House.

With the task of reading six books over the summer, another part of the Creepy House adventure is revealed by librarians after every two books.

The libraries service is anticipating even more than last year’s participation number of 13,000 will have taken part by the end of the challenge.

The scheme is also being implemented in many East Lancashire schools and in reading groups such as the Great Harwood based Chatter-books.

Children who take on the challenge and complete it are also being used to encourage children to join the Lancashire Reading Trail, where many youngsters, such as Bacup Library users aged between five and seven have read up to 50 books.

Heather Pitman, from the library service, said: “There have been some children who have already finished the challenge because they enjoyed the Creepy House so much.

“They are also free to choose whatever books they like, from e-books to fiction and non-fiction to audio books.”