Happy birthday Bookstart!

(L-R) Julia Donaldson, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, Viv Bird

Booktrust is celebrating 20 years of Bookstart during National Bookstart Week which this week sees more than 5,000 Party-themed family events celebrating book sharing and family reading taking place in local libraries, bookshops and children's centres across the country, possibly even with a visit from the Bookstart Bear!

Bookstart 20 is a campaign to promote book sharing and if you haven't already done so, do make the simple Pledge to share 20 books in 2012 and help us reach our target of 10,000 Pledges - we are already halfway with some fabulous messages of support that you can see around you. Thank you to our patron, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall for being one of the first of our celebrities to make the Bookstart Pledge and for attending an event yesterday at Kensington Roof Gardens where she shared Hairy McClary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd with children from Herbert Morrison Primary School and Golborne Children's Centre.

Bookstart began in Birmingham in 1992 and was the first bookgifting programme to be launched in the world, and is now established in over 20 countries.

A recent survey showed that more than half of families in England do not own a single baby book until they receive their first packs from Bookstart, and 75% of parents report sharing books with their babies as a direct result of receiving their Bookstart packs which demonstrates the continued need for the programme.

However, our current grant from the Department for Education ends in March 2013. I urge the government to give priority to funding this highly effective public private partnership: our £6 million grant unlocks £22 million of support from children's publishers. We are also keen to seek new supporters as, together, we can do so much more to help all children discover the pleasures of reading.

There are many people I want to thank:

- All our celebrity supporters - especially, Lauren Laverne, Shirley Hughes and Julia Donaldson who have contributed to the success of our event yesterday

- Publishers including the Book People, and for their support over 20 years

- The many authors and illustrators whose books in the Bookstart packs have given such joy to the children

- Our local partners in libraries, health, early years and children's centres who help us reach 1.3 million babies/young children each year through Bookstart

- A special thank you to Wendy Cooling who conceived the original idea for Bookstart - and to my colleague Rosemary Clarke who has worked tirelessly with her team over the years to make Bookstart a highly effective early intervention programme across England, Wales and Northern Ireland