In November last year, I was invited to Bingley Library to meet with members of Bound by Books, a youth reading group. At the time, I was acting Development Officer for Young People. I had the most enchanting evening, listening to the group speak about the book they were reading, (Lying About Last Summer), and speaking with them about their plans, hopes and dreams. The group is run by Ehlissya Naqvi, Literacy Lead for Youth – (313 Foundation)
Bound by Books . She is an incredible young woman! This project is exactly what we want to encourage in our libraries.…especially during The National Year of Reading 2026.
Ehlissya says…
Bound by Books is a youth reading group for experienced readers aged 10 to 16, and we meet every Tuesday from 5:15pm to 6:15pm in Bingley Library.
I’m the Literacy Lead for Youth at 313 Foundation, which is how the group first began. We have just finished our first six-week cycle, where we read The Hunger Games, and now we’re going to be reading Lying About Last Summer by Sue Wallman. We try to choose books that make us think deeply, we like mysteries, thrillers, dystopian stories and books where you need to notice clues and understand the bigger ideas behind a character’s decisions.
I started Bound by Books because I wanted young people like me to have a place where reading feels exciting. A lot of people read online now, which is great, but reading a whole story together and talking about what it means feels different. In our group, everyone gets to have a voice, even if they are shy at first, and we do creative things like weekly reflection questions, short activities linked to sections of the book, and conversations about the themes. It has already helped people become more confident sharing their ideas, and it feels like a real community.
One of the things that makes Bound by Books special is that we try to bring stories to life, not just read them. We have started connecting with other people and places because of the books we choose. For example, one of our members designed and made Bound by Books badges for the group, which helped us all feel proud of being part of something we built ourselves. We also go together to the Bingley Youth Café as a group, so we can share ideas with other organisations and be part of the wider community. We even met our local MP, Anna Dixon, who encouraged us to keep building confidence through reading and to keep developing our ideas.
One of the most exciting things we’ve done is start a relationship with our local PCSO, Sofia Hussain, who visited our group at the library. She showed us her uniform and talked about teamwork, fairness and staying safe in the community. Because the genres we like often involve mysteries and investigation, we asked if we could learn more about real-life techniques that police use. Through that conversation, we have been able to approach Shipley Police Station to ask if we could visit and see how things work behind the scenes, like how officers look at evidence or use CCTV. It’s still being considered, but even being able to ask has made a big difference to us. We’ve also invited the police to join some of our creative sessions, where we explore fictional investigative techniques like fingerprinting, interview skills, analysing clues and building theories, because that connects directly with the kind of stories we enjoy reading.
All of this has happened in only one cycle, which makes me really proud of everyone in the group. We started with a simple idea of reading together, and now we have built confidence, made new connections, shared creative skills, learned from each other and even reached places we never expected, like speaking with our MP and connecting with the police. None of this would have been possible without the support of the Bingley Library staff, who have been really kind and helpful from the beginning. They always encourage us, help with the space, and make us feel like the library belongs to young people too.
If you would like to join the group, please contact Bingley Library.
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