IT could well have been the biggest game in town and has helped Bolton youngsters to expand their reading list and have a lot of fun at the same time.

Bolton's libraries were some of the town's busiest venues over the summer months as hundreds of children on their school holidays were invited to take part in the annual summer reading game.

This year Bolton's library service and the BEN linked up with national project the Reading Carnival, which aimed to promote the use of libraries through the summer months.

More than 1,200 children aged between five and 11 took part in the carnival which ran for the whole of the summer holidays.

Special services librarian Mary Keane said: "The children were given a booklet and they collected cards for each book they read.

"They were also invited to write reviews of the books on the cards and were given pictures to colour in as well."

Meanwhile, the BEN ran a series of excerpts from popular children's books such as the hilarious Pongwiffy -- A Witch of Dirty Habits by Kaye Umansky and were given questions to answer at the end of each passage.

The 40 winners of the libraries and BEN competition were invited to Bolton Central Library's Lecture Theatre to receive their prizes of books from Mayor and Mayoress of Bolton Cllr Kevan Helsby and Alice Kilcoyne and BEN editor Steve Hughes.

"The whole event was a huge success and was very popular with the children," said Ms Keane.

"The idea behind it was to let children know that we are still here and open over the summer and we are not just here for school work but for fun as well.

"We also wanted to help attract children to different books and give them a greater variety of leisure reading and I think we have done this." Competition

winners The winners of the libraries reading carnival competition were: Astley Bridge - Nicholas Harper, Stacey Rigby.

Blackrod - Liam McCarthy, Adam Mohamed-Ali, Michael Webb.

Breightmet - Andrew Gray, Jodie Richardson.

Bromley Cross - Chris Flanagan, Jack Garmory, Hannah Woods.

Central - Ahmed Desai, Rebecca Grundy, Bijal Rama, Claire Walch.

Farnworth - Christian Gee-Barker, Alistair McIntyre.

Halliwell - Rachel Murphy, Radhika Tewani.

Harwood - Tanya Mitchell, Megan Morris.

Heaton - Samuel Garrett, Sally Robinson, Abigail Tatterton.

High Street - Mehfuza Kola, Sahil Najak, Menhel Saleh.

Horwich - Alexander Bott, Michael Holland, Roseanne Holroyd.

Little Lever - David Francis, Saffron Jones, Kelsie May.

Marsh Lane - Carrie Hobson, Karen Lee.

New Bury - Beverley Kay.

Tonge Moor - Chelsea Millward, Lauren Ryan.

Westhoughton - Maria Hyla, Nathan Perfect, Amy Roebuck.

The winners of the BEN reading competition were:

Kirsty Molyneux, aged 10, of Leigh.

Stacey Rigby, aged nine, of Bolton.

Tamsin Rigby, aged seven, of Bolton.

Anthony Ainsworth, aged 14, of Breightmet. WELL READ: Stacey Rigby, aged nine, and sister Tamsin, aged seven, who were both BEN competition winners in this year's Reading Carnival. Stacey (left) was also one of the winners in the Astley Bridge Library competition BOOKER PRIZES: Mayor and Mayoress of Bolton Cllr Kevan Helsby and Alice Kilcoyne with BEN editor Steve Hughes in congratulating all the winners in this year's library summer reading game