23 March 2026
Young readers are being called on to again turn the pages for the Premier’s Reading Challenge, which kicks off for 2026 today.
Open to students of all ages, the annual challenge encourages a lifelong love of reading while supporting literacy development in classrooms and at home.
Premier Roger Cook launched the challenge with children's author James Foley at Ardross Primary School.
Running for 12 weeks, students are invited to set reading goals and log their progress, with students from Kindergarten to Year 6 aiming to read 12 books and students in Years 7 to 12 aiming to turn the pages on six.
Students can log reading in many formats to meet their goal, including audiobooks, comic books, blogs and graphic novels.
In a new initiative for 2026, a story time session hosted by author Alton Walley will be released on the Department of Education YouTube channel each week of the challenge, encouraging classrooms to read along and log a book together.
In 2025, more than 26,000 students logged an incredible 420,000 titles.
More than 1,000 school staff registered as challenge champions to support readers on their journey. Parents and carers can also again register student readers and get involved.
Participants who log their reading each week will go in the draw to win great prizes, with top-performing individuals and schools recognised at the end of the challenge.
The challenge ends Friday 12 June.
Registrations are open. For more information, visit the Premier’s Reading Challenge website.