News | 28 January 2026
IES Liljeholmen secures top-10 spot in ‘The Great Reading Challenge’
The Great Reading Challenge (Den stora läsutmaningen) is a collaborative initiative between different Swedish publishing houses and a bookstore, with the shared goal of making reading a daily habit. The 2025 results were recently announced, and class 4CD at IES Liljeholmen achieved an impressive ninth place.
Reading extensively is crucial for children’s language development and learning, both in the short and long term. The competition is organised for year 4 students across Sweden, where classes challenge one another to read as much as possible over the course of a term.
Year 4 is specifically chosen for this initiative because research shows that children’s interest in reading drops dramatically around age 10. This is considered a pivotal age for establishing future reading habits, which, in turn, affects learning and the ability to absorb knowledge.
"Our students in class 4CD read a total of 3,480 hours. They have been doing such an amazing job!" says Aykiz Kayhan, teacher at IES Liljeholmen. "The children have truly enjoyed the challenge, and it’s been wonderful to see how this initiative has sparked a newfound love for books and helped them establish a lasting reading habit."
During the competition period (from 15 September to 1 December 2025), 45,000 students nationwide read a staggering 1,181,514 hours combined. This means each student read for an average of 20 minutes per day. For the winning class, 4C at Tallbackaskolan in Solna, each student averaged 3 hours of reading per day, securing them first prize: a trip to Astrid Lindgren’s World in Vimmerby.