Last year the government announced that the autumn break should be called a reading break because the point of the break would be for the students to read. The reason behind having a "reading break" was that the students results in PISA went down and of course the government want to improve this, but not by giving more money to the schools but to give money to other companies and culture for them to have reading activities during one week while the students have their autumn break. Do you see where this is going?

Furthermore, reading during this break should be optional meaning the students themselves decides if they want to read or not. Some argue that this will lead to more splits in school where some students will benefit from these activites while others' will not. It is kind of inevidable since you give the students a choice. Of course those students who don't like to read won't read during this break while students who like to read will read, but not because there are reading activites at the library but because they like reading and do it at home all around the year and not only during this one week.

Reading is important for developing language and you learn a lot from reading, since you can see how the words are spelled, how they work together to become meaningful text and you can see the grammar that your have worked so hard with to understand in action. I wouldn't recommend a reading break I believe the students benefit more from choosing when they want to read and what they want to read. You need to show them that reading is not work or homework but that it is something pleasurable, something to enjoy.