Ready for a challenge?
Join the Tir na n-Og Reading Challenge!
Celebrating 50 years of the oldest awards for children’s books in Wales.
Today, Monday 16 February the Books Council of Wales is launching the Tir na n-Og Reading Challenge to celebrate 50 years of brilliant books for children on the Prynhawn Da programme on S4C.
Francesca Sciarrillo, Reading Promotion Officer at the Books Council of Wales will be joining the programme to discuss the challenge that kicks off a year of celebration in 2026.
The fun challenges will take readers of all ages on a reading adventure to remember. Different versions are available for children, young people and adults, with plenty of challenges to choose from to share with family and friends.
Francesca said: “We’re so excited to launch this special challenge today and are really looking forward to a year of reading fab books, discovering memorable characters and letting our imaginations run wild! We hope that readers of all ages will take up the challenge with us – who doesn’t like reading with friends, or imagining the scenes from our favourite books?
“The Tir na n-Og Awards have celebrated reading and books for children and young people for 50 years by now, and we know that reading offers us so much. Reading doesn’t have to be a solitary activity either – we hope that the Tir na n-Og Reading Challenge will create a community of readers as we complete the challenges together – in our homes, schools, libraries and communities across Wales.”
Tir na n-Og Reading Challenge leaflets can be collected from your local bookshop or library or can be downloaded from www.books.wales. The Books Council of Wales is very grateful to Gwasg Gomer Press for their generous support to print the reading challenges.
Supporting the National Year of Reading, Go All In, the Tir na n-Og Reading Challenge is part of a huge programme of activities to celebrate reading across the UK. The main aim of the ‘Go All In’ campaign is to inspire people to develop a lifelong love of reading – to immerse themselves in a book and enjoy reading.
With only a month to go before the shortlists are announced for 2026, the excitement is building as we wait to see which books will be in the running during this special year. The Awards have three categories: Welsh-language Primary (age 4–11), Welsh-language Secondary (age 11–18) and English-language book with an authentic Welsh dimension (primary or secondary, age 4–18).
We are grateful to our sponsors for their support. The awards are sponsored by CILIP Cymru Wales. The Tir na n-Og Awards 2026 are generously supported by Gwasg Gomer Press and Halen Môn. More information on the Tir na n-Og Awards and the year of celebrations can be found on the Books Council of Wales website books.wales.
