Around 30 Surrey Libraries staff gathered at Chertsey Library in November for a Chatterbooks training day - and outside in the autumn-gold park the ducks chattered back!

It was a full day - sharing and shaping strategies for recruiting and setting up Chatterbooks reading clubs, plus lots of ideas for activities once clubs are up and running.

Here are some key aims from Surrey Libraries for their Chatterbooks clubs which we hope will be useful to all Chatterbooks club organisers.

• Enjoyment! We aim to make reading fun.

• Opening up a whole variety of books (and other formats of reading) - and encouraging children to tackle all kinds of books - including non-fiction, comics, and puzzle books where they make up their own path through a book and create their own story.

• Uniting children through a love of reading (e.g. with transition year children) and using Chatterbooks as a bridge to keep up reading enthusiasm when children move to secondary school.

• Targeting children who think they don't like reading; attracting children from a variety of backgrounds and being all-inclusive if possible; encouraging more young teenagers to use the library; involving looked-after children.

• Using Chatterbooks as a wonderful opportunity to market libraries, raise libraries' profile, and work with schools.

Get involved

If you are a teacher or librarian interested in starting a Chatterbooks club in your school or library take a look at our Chatterbooks website.

We have regular Chatterbooks training days around the country and we can also arrange on site training for your group. To find out more contact Jenny Warner either by telephone 020 7324 2545 or by emailing jenny.warner@readingagency.org.uk.