A BOLTON youth charity is tackling illiteracy with a book-gifting day.

Xplode Magazine volunteers will be handing out books next month after finding out a shocking number of children in Greater Manchester did not have books in their home.

The National Literacy Trust revealed at more than 40,000 schoolchildren in Greater Manchester don’t own a single book and have much poorer educational outcomes than their peers.

Jacob Aspinall, aged 19, is a volunteer with Xplode, he said: "We wanted to tackle the child literacy divide as part of our project and thought of the book gifting day because we can have real impact ­— I remember when we had to bring in a book to school and somebody brought in an Argos catalogue because they didn’t own a book.

"This can’t happen in 2019.”

Volunteers aged 15-21 from Xplode came up with the idea as part of their ‘social action project’ where four times per year, they tackle a social issue that they’ve identified.

Saeed Atcha MBE, chief executive of Xplode said: “I just love how young people are identifying an issue and coming up with a solution to tackling it – social action should be part of life for all. For our team, this project is a great way to develop themselves and their community.”

As part of the event for children aged 7-11, there will be story telling sessions led by the Xplode volunteers, free Roald Dahl craft sessions and the chance to win a collection of Roald Dahl books worth over £100.

The book gifting day will be held on March 2 from 11am to 3pm at Bolton Central Library in Le Mans Crescent.

Emma Bateson, from the library said: “Reading has a big impact on educational outcomes and life chances.”