Oamaru Public Library youth librarian Alison Sofield holds book bingo cards for the competition she has organised for the summer holidays. Photo by Sally Rae.

Bingo with a difference will be played at the Oamaru Public Library over the school holidays.

Youth librarian Alison Sofield has come up with the idea of having bingo-style cards for the summer reading programme, divided into age-groups for children between 12 and 17, 5 and 12 and a third group for the preschool-aged library users.

The aim was to get children to read a variety of books, in different genres, with them having to complete a line of their "bingo" card.

They then had to rate the books as awesome, cool, not bad, OK, or waste of a tree.

Already, 34 children have enrolled for the programme, which will run until the end of January, and sponsored prizes have been obtained.