Bookstart 20: 15,000 people celebrate sharing stories in 2012

Looking back on a great birthday year for Bookstart

When we launched the Bookstart 20 pledge back at the start of 2012 we knew it would capture the imagination. We knew that lots of you would make the pledge to share 20 books in the year and we also knew that you'd tell your friends about it.

What we didn't know was just how many of you would make the pledge: by August you'd helped us to smash our 10,000 pledge target and now we're well on our way to topping 15,000. That's something like 300,000 books that you've shared in less than 12 months!

Something else that came as a surprise - a very pleasant one - were the extraordinary, touching, funny, creative and moving messages of support you sent into us. You can see many of these – alongside quotes from celebrity pledgers like Jamie Oliver, Colleen Rooney and Michael Morpurgo – on the pledge wall. And even though the campaign has come to an end, we're going to leave the wall up to remind us of just how much you all love Bookstart and sharing books.

A very happy birthday to Bookstart - and here's hoping for another fantastic 20 years!
Eamonn Holmes

Birthday celebrations

During National Bookstart Week in June we hosted Bookstart's fantastic 20th birthday bash at Kensington Roof Gardens - attended by our Patron, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall and Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson. Up and down the country, you hosted thousands of your own parties, and judging from the snaps and the press cuttings you sent in, it looks like you enjoyed them!

And towards the end of all of this pledging, book-sharing and celebrating, we received the fantastic news that we would have renewed funding from the government to carry on the Bookstart mission and to bring the joy of reading to as many babies, toddlers and young people as possible.

Looking forward

We're looking forward to 2013 and a big new challenge to help the most disadvantaged children to discover books and reading. You can keep up-to-date with all of our work by subscribing to the Booktrust newsletter and following us on Twitter.

So, finally, it's time for a big thank you. A thank you to everyone who pledged to share books and a thank you to everyone who sent in messages of support. It's a thank you for having so much fun sharing books and a thank you for helping us to celebrate the Bookstart story in 2012.

I realised how important Bookstart is when my daughter received her first book with baby pictures. Never before did I think books could be so much fun for children.

Reem Abushawareb, Bookstart 20 pledger