BOOK-lovers can share their passion and inspire children to read more with a new scheme backed by Clarets’ star Danny Ings.

The Children and Young People’s Trust and Burnley FC in the Community has joined forces with libraries to create the Pass It On campaign.

The project encourages children to recommend or pass on a book to friends or family, and make sure one of the books they read this summer is one that has been recommended to them.

Janet Swan, a reading specialist from Burnley who works with people with mental health difficulties, said: “Anything that encourages children to read is a good thing.

“The social aspect will help them to make new, like-minded friends, which builds their confidence.

“Passing on the books to other children also makes it more affordable for parents, and it will support libraries. However, I would also like to see children being read to more, listening to and discussing stories, not only sharing books in a social media way.

“But this sounds like a very good idea, and having Danny Ings on board will, of course, get all the children interested.”

Children can get involved with the scheme by visiting summerreading challenge.org.uk. They can then create a profile, chat about books and get ideas on what to read via the digital Book Sorter, which offers more than 300,000 children’s book recommendations.

Clarets striker Danny: “This year many children across the country will be inspired to celebrate reading and recommend or ‘pass on’ their favourite books to friends and family. It is a great way to motivate kids to visit libraries and prevent their reading skills dropping during the holidays.

“The book I’d like to pass on to youngsters is James And The Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, which is a book I remember reading when I was younger.”

Every year, the Summer Reading Challenge adopts a new theme and 2014’s is the Mythical Maze to explore myths and legends from all over the world.

Children can sign up at their local library. More information and a full timetable of the Summer Reading Challenge and its events can be found on pointme.org.uk.