Following last month’s launch of the “Books for Schools” reading initiative, in which The Scottish Sun and publisher HarperCollins joined forces to give away reading packs to Scottish primary schools, registration has closed with 710 schools signed up: around one in three primary schools in Scotland.

Each primary is able to get a pack containing over 100 books for their school library.

Primary schools have been encouraged to take advantage of the offer by registering and collecting tokens printed in The Scottish Sun and The Scottish Sun on Sunday during an eight-week period from Monday 24th September until Sunday 18th November.

The pack is worth over £550 and the books are selected from the ‘Collins Big Cat’ range – covering subjects ranging from fairytales to football, camping to crocodiles, and wild cats to worms. Julia Donaldson, Michael Rosen, Michelle Robinson, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Benjamin Zephaniah and Nick Butterworth are among the award-winning authors and illustrators whose works are included.

Alan Muir, editor of The Scottish Sun, said: “This is a fantastic response from primary schools the length and breadth of Scotland. We are proud to be giving to the community by increasing opportunities for children to read and learn, and delighted that around a third of all primaries have registered for ‘books for schools’, which exceeds our wildest expectations.”

Colin Hughes, managing director of Collins Learning, said: “We are thrilled that so many children at primary schools right across Scotland will shortly be enjoying thousands of free Big Cat books that will enthral and delight them for many years to come.”