The HELL Reading Challenge is a well-established programme that has been hugely successful in getting tamariki reading and enjoying the pleasures of stories — with the bonus of free pizza rewards!

We are very excited to be continuing our partnership with HELL Pizza. Their enthusiasm for children’s reading and generous ongoing commitment is awesome.

Teachers, librarians and parents have been telling us how the HELL Reading Challenge has hooked so many reluctant readers into books. We want even more young readers to discover the thrill of a great book.

The HELL Reading Challenge is free, and it is so easy! Children receive a stamp on their pizza wheel for each book they read. Once they have read seven books, children can exchange their completed pizza wheel for a free 333 kids’ pizza at HELL.

To find out more about how the HELL Reading Challenge works, download the 2023 HELL Reading Challenge manual here

Registrations for the 2023 HELL Reading Challenge are now open.

Schools and libraries can register and order pizza wheels here

If you're a parent or caregiver and want to get pizza wheels for your tamariki, please ask at your local library or school.

Download a printable 2023 HELL Reading Challenge book review card here

Download the 2023 HELL Reading Challenge poster here

If you have any questions about the HELL Reading Challenge, please email readingchallenge@nzbookawards.org.nz

You can also keep up to date with Reading Challenge news on the HELL Reading Challenge Facebook page

Hell's Great NZ Book Trip

To add even more interest and incentive, this year we’ll be offering libraries and schools the optional additional opportunity to take tamariki on Hell’s Great NZ Book Trip – where they can discover the rich tapestry of New Zealand literature that takes them all around the motu.

Hell's Great NZ Book Trip includes New Zealand themed teaching resources, such as lesson plans and activities, as well as author events, competitions and other new activities, which will be added throughout the year.

Whether you would like to dip in and be inspired by a few resources, or journey with us through all the various lesson plans and activities – we will leave that to you. What’s important is that our tamariki have fun and enjoy their reading journey. Wherever it takes them.

So come along on HELL’s Great NZ Book Trip around New Zealand – we hope you enjoy what Aotearoa has to offer!

Teaching resources

To help you on your own journey, we’re including potential lesson plans and activities to kickstart your own Book Trip.

Each resource can be used as an individual shared reading lesson, or as part of a unit of study on New Zealand authors. We hope that these will be a great starting point in bringing more New Zealand content into your classroom.

Years 3 & 4

Download the Year 3 & 4 Lesson Plans

Download the Year 3 & 4 Activity Sheets

Years 5 & 6

Download the Year 5 & 6 Lesson Plans

Download the Year 5 & 6 Activity Sheets

Track your journey on your very own map

To help tamariki track their own journeys around the motu, we’ve designed a map, where they can mark off places they’ve visited – either over the holidays or travelling by book. This can be used individually or in a classroom and library setting.

Download the map

Author events

As part of HELL’s Great NZ Book Trip, some of New Zealand’s most loved children’s authors and illustrators are being live-streamed to classrooms around the country.

The final Book Trip author event for 2023 will take place on Wednesday 6 December, 9.30-10.30am. This extra-special event will feature Jason Gunn, who will read from Jason Mason and the World’s Most Powerful Itching Powder, a junior fiction story that Jason co-authored with brother Andrew. This fast-paced and hilarious book was shortlisted at the 2023 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

Jason will also answer questions that have been sent in by children around Aotearoa.This free online event should appeal to all ages.

To register for this free online event, either fill in the online form or email readingchallenge@nzbookawards.org.nz with your name, email address, school or library name, and age range of children in your group. All registered groups will be sent a link for the event on 5 December.

And if you’d like to watch other author readings and Q&A sessions that have taken place as part of HELL’s Great NZ Book Trip, you’ll find recordings of all events here.

2023 HELL Reading Challenge – Key dates

Registrations for the 2023 HELL Reading Challenge are now open.

Last date for ordering 2023 pizza wheels (stocks permitting): 4 December 2023

Last date for redeeming completed 2023 wheels: 31 January 2024

The New Zealand Book Awards Trust is very grateful to HELL Pizza for their sponsorship of the Reading Challenge. For more information on HELL and our other funders, click here.