A NEW junior book club launched by the Oxford Mail in association with bookseller Waterstones has been hailed a roaring success.

As part of the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign, we teamed up with the Oxford bookseller to launch the Oxford Mail Junior Book Club, offering readers the chance to buy a popular children’s book for half-price.

So popular was October’s book, David Walliams’s Gangsta Granny, Waterstones in Broad Street had to get more stock in to keep up with demand.

Waterstones events manager Charlie Hayes said: “We knew it was going to be popular because we picked a really good book, but we actually had to tell people to come back because we needed to get extra stock.”

“We have been struggling to keep up with the demand.

“We had to get more stock in – about 50 extra copies so far and people are still coming in with the vouchers.

“Parents are always desperately looking for things for their children to read and reading is incredibly important for people’s education, so you can get on in school.”

The shop is still accepting the Gangsta Granny vouchers.

November’s book is Michael Morpurgo’s A Medal for Leroy, a poignant story about a young boy growing up in London after the Second World War. He is given a medal followed by a photograph which leads to a discovery about his own history. The novel is loosely based on the story of the first black British officer, Walter Tull.

Mr Hayes said: “We went with David Walliams, who is establishing himself as a children’s author, for the first book. We thought for the next one we would go for an author everyone already knows.”

Mr Hayes said Waterstones had made sure extra copies were in stock to cope with demand.

Get your copy of today's Oxford Mail for the vouchers