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Book lovers Brittany Trask (14), left, and Hasmita Singh (15) were the big winners in this year’s Books in the Wild programme.

Media release

December 12, 2008

Book lovers go wild out west

From New Lynn to Bethells Beach and in cinemas and on trains – the 450 books released for this year’s Books in the Wild teen literacy programme certainly made their way around Waitakere and, in some cases, beyond.

In September, 10 popular teen titles were “released into the wild” to participating schools with students encouraged to take up the challenge to hunt down and read the titles and register them online before releasing the books back into the wild for others to find.

Run by Waitakere Library & Information Services, and aimed at Year 9 and 10 students, the innovative programme attracted close to 300 student registrations from across Waitakere – 80 more than last year.

“The programme aims to generate excitement about reading among teenagers and encourage them to read and enjoy good quality literature,” says Waitakere Library & Information Services’ Children’s and Teens’ Librarian Robert Baigent.

“We are thrilled with the response this year and the recognition the ground-breaking programme is starting to get from our schools.”

This year books were found all over Waitakere, from New Lynn and Henderson to Bethells and Piha. They were also found in some interesting locations, including bus and train stops, the cinema and on the seat of a Helensville-bound train.

Each registered book was read an average of 1.98 times with the most popular book being a single copy of the The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, which was registered seven times.

The most popular book was Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine, which was registered 60 times.

All participating students went in to a prize drawer with the winner of the X Box 360 and games being St Dominic’s College Year 10 student Brittany Trask.

Henderson High School Year 10 student Hasmita Singh won the prize of an iPod Nano for reading the most books. She was one of 15 students to register all 10 books.

Kelston Girls’ College won the school prize of $500 worth of Whitcoulls vouchers for having 35 per cent of eligible students registered for the programme.

ENDS

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