The north-east’s Mither Tongue took centre-stage as part of an annual scheme to get local youngsters reading.
The Aberdeenshire Summer Reading Challenge has come to a close, with prizes handed out for the initiative’s photography competition last weekend.
This year the project focused on young people’s favourite spots to get stuck into a book under the theme Your Place, Your Space, Just Read.
The challenge is run by Aberdeenshire Council’s library service and was sponsored by Total E&P UK, with children asked to keep a track of the number of books they read.
This year there were 45,396 books read as part of the challenge, an increase of 41% on last year.
For an accompanying photography competition, entrants were asked to write a Doric caption to go alongside their pictures of their favourite place to reach.
Entrants were asked to write a caption to go alongside a photo taken in their favourite place to read, with six-year-old Jamie Elphinstone winning the top prize for a picture of himself in his father’s tractor.
The caption read: “Weel I hope ma favourite book “Tractor Trouble” disna gee ma fither’s tractor ony daft ideas’.”
Nine-year-old Morgan Finlayson was a runner-up for a photograph of himself at the foot of Bennachie, as was two-year-old Isla Wilson with an image of herself reading The Gruffalo on a bench.
Local author and champion of the Doric dialect, Debbie Leslie, led the prize-giving ceremony for the winner’s of the photography competition at Ellon Academy Community Campus on Saturday.
Education, learning and leisure chairwoman Alison Evison, said: “It’s gone from strength to strength and this year is no different – 7,566 participants completed the challenge, reading a fantastic 45,396 books.
“The photography competition has also been very special, with some excellent entries and hilarious captions. It’s good to see Doric being promoted to younger generations so they can learn about its influence on the cultural heritage of the north-east.”
