They favour football and computer games – so can a new competition finally get boys reading more?

Education bosses have decided to pitch the city's young lads against the girls to see who can read the most.

They believe the rivalry will get more "Boys Into Books'' and have joined forces with Leicester City Football Club to add extra encouragement.

Over the next three months, £28,000 of Government money will be spent encouraging school pupils to read, with the chance of scoring some top football prizes along the way.

Prompted by research that shows in general girls read more, Leicester City Council launched their 'Boys Into Books' project yesterday at the Walkers Stadium with the help of children's author Pete Johnson.

To keep score, each primary school in Leicester will be given two giant posters of the Walkers Stadium – one for boys and one for girls – and for every book they read they can put a sticker on one of the seat places.

The group that fills the stadium the quickest wins.

Paul Gobey, library manager for children and young people's services, said: "We think this scheme will really get the children interested, excited and engaged.

"We can't just leave it and hope that they will come into it themselves – that has been shown not to work."

Each school will also be given about 80 new books aimed at boys, including non-fiction titles about forensic science and dinosaurs and a host of other books covering everything from pirates to poetry.

Mr Gobey said: "There's an image that reading is not cool so we've tried to pick a wide range of titles that will really appeal to young boys."

The challenge will run until the end of February 2009, and each school will get three sets of match tickets for Leicester City as incentives for the keenest readers.

To kick start the scheme, about 30 boys from Abbey Primary, in Ellis Avenue, Belgrave, Parks Primary, in New Parks Crescent, New Parks, and Caldecote Primary, in Hallam Crescent East, Braunstone, were treated to a talk from Mr Johnson and given a copy of one of his books.

Reece Davis, nine, and Josh Glaze, 10, both from Caldecote Primary, in Braunstone, Leicester, said they were keen readers. Reece said: "Sometimes books can be really funny or sometimes they can be really scary, but, whatever you like, there is always a book for you.

"You can learn a lot from reading, and it can help with your spelling."

Josh said: "I find reading really relaxing. Being on the computer all the time is not good for you, so I like to take a break and read for a bit."

Mr Johnson, who won the Our Best Book award in 2007 for "Help! I'm a Classroom Gambler", said: "The main thing is to get that spark of interest going at a young age.

"Once that is there, reading is something that will stay with them for life."

The project is being funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, as part of The National Year of Reading.