TWO Downham schoolchildren have munched their way through hundreds of packs of crisps in a bid to get free books for their school.

Jessica Watts, six, and her brother Daniel, four, collected a whopping 4,551 Walkers Crisp tokens to exchange for school books, thanks to The Sun newspaper's Books for Schools offer.

The children, pupils at Launcelot Primary School, in Downham, enlisted the help of friends and relatives around the country in their mammoth collection effort.

Proud mum Lisa Watts was full of praise for her little ones. She said: “Jessica and Daniel absolutely love reading, and we have always encouraged them to get stuck into a book rather than watch videos or play computer games. I am so proud of what they have achieved.”

Their headmistress, Mrs Blazena Richards, says the duo's hard work could start a new trend.

She said: “I really think Jessica and Daniel's efforts will make the whole school start collecting the tokens and maybe even try to beat their total.

“We are really pleased at what they have done. We'll be using the tokens to get a variety of books.”