Jacqueline Wilson asks children to join Silly Squad this summer

British children may be facing a summer in lockdown, but according to the writer Jacqueline Wilson it isn’t the moment to attempt the classics, but for comfort reading.

Wilson, the former children’s laureate, is calling on children to sign up online for the Summer Reading Challenge, which launches on Friday. Encouraging children aged four to 11 to read during the long break, this year the focus is on funny books, and getting children to read whatever makes them happy.

“Of course, we’ve never experienced anything like this pandemic before,” said the Tracy Beaker author. “But sometimes people think, at certain stages of their life or even on holiday, it’s time to read the great classics that they’ve never actually got into before. And it’s wonderful if you want to do that and that’s what you like. But right now it’s time for comfort reading.”

Wilson confessed that after watching the news on television she has been turning to the comedy series Modern Family. “Who, hand on heart, can say that even if you read the most impressive list of wonderful literary authors, on a trip to the hairdressers’ – remember that? I’m so longing to go – if there’s a pile of tacky magazines while waiting your turn it’s very tempting to have 10 minutes’ total relaxation,” she said. “Everyone needs that, especially children. And something easy to read, and funny, counts for your Summer Reading Challenge just as much as making your way through Watership Down.”

The poet Laura Dockrill agreed. “It’s the only sort of time when kids can pick up whatever they want to read, before they get to secondary school and the syllabus gets really difficult,” she said. “That’s how you find the pleasure of reading, choosing the books you want to read yourself.”

This year’s challenge takes the theme of Silly Squad, and is also encouraging children taking part to form their own groups to talk about the stories they love to help combat feelings of isolation and loneliness. The launch comes as a new survey from The Reading Agency, which runs the initiative, found that 89% of children have been reading during lockdown. Thirty-seven per cent of seven to 11-year-olds have been reading more than before school closed, with 40% saying that reading had helped them relax, and 35% saying it had made them happy.

“I think laughter is a particularly British way of coping with things – we need a laugh,” Wilson said. “Children need to laugh, too, and to feel free to read whatever.” She remembers being “absolutely helpless with laughter” reading Paddington as a seven-year-old, and also advises children to try the Mary Poppins books: “They have that dark side to them, but they do introduce some really funny characters, and no matter what happens, Mary Poppins will tidy things up and whisk the children away from whatever gloom and despair thing is happening … In fact, she might be the right person to think about at the moment.”