Young bookworms have celebrated achieving a whopping half a million minutes of home reading with Buster’s Book Club.

It’s a record result for the literacy scheme devised by the KM’s charity department to help school children foster a love of reading. Currently more than 10,000 pupils are hitting the books following the scheme’s successful pilot last academic year.

Simon Dolby of the KM Charity Team said: “We’re thrilled to have already reached 500,000 minutes of at home reading. The pilot initiative was a spectacular success and Buster’s Book Club is going from strength to strength.

“Together with our key partners we are looking forward to improving the reading and literacy skills of a phenomenal number of children this year.”

This week young readers taking part in the scheme were invited to the Beaney Centre, Canterbury to reveal the milestone reading figure. They were joined by mascot Buster Bug as well as supporters of the initiative including Kent County Council (KCC), Three R’s Teacher Recruitment, Canterbury Tales, Beanstalk and Clarkson Wright and Jakes Ltd.

Mike Hill, KCC’s cabinet member for community services, said: “I am pleased to support Buster’s Book Club because, as the cabinet member responsible for the county’s libraries, I am a firm believer in the value of reading regularly.

“Our libraries have an important role to play by providing a wide range of books which pupils can read at home. Libraries also host a number of initiatives aimed at encouraging youngsters to make regular visits and I hope that if young children get the reading habit, it will lead to a lifelong enjoyment of books.”

Other organisations backing Buster’s Book Club include Medway Council, Mini Babybel, The Ernest Cook Trust, Golding Vision (part of Golding Homes), Orbit South, Specsavers and Leeds Castle.

The initiative, which is being used in 40 primary schools in the county, works by setting pupils an individual home reading target, plus a series of reading challenges throughout the year and an annual record attempt.

Schools wanting to join should visit www.bustersbookclub.co.uk.