Booktime 2011 launches

This month Booktime 2011 celebrated giving over a million books to children starting school in 2011. This brings the programme's total number of free books given since 2006 up to more than six million. A celebration event was held in London at Holborn Library.

Booktime is run by Booktrust and Pearson, the world's leading learning company. The programme was launched in 2006 by Pearson in partnership with Booktrust. Booktime aims to promote the pleasure of books by encouraging families to have fun reading together. The programme supports, encourages and enables reading for pleasure in the home at an important transition stage in a child's learning and development.

This year's authors, Monica Hughes and Claudia Lloyd, attended the launch along with Lenny Henry, the voice of Elephant in the CBeebies cartoon of Tinga Tinga Tales. The reception class from St George the Martyr, a local primary school, came to the library to have their faces painted with Tinga Tinga Tales designs, dance to African drumming, and hear a very special reading of Why Elephant has a Trunk from Elephant himself, Lenny Henry.

Speaking at the event Lenny Henry said: 'I'm delighted to help launch Booktime this year. It's a brilliant programme and anything that encourages children to appreciate and enjoy books gets the thumbs up from me. When I was a little kid I went through a massive Dickens phase. I remember Great Expectations blew my mind, and then there was Oliver Twist. Then I just wanted to read more and more. What's so great is that you can totally lose yourself in the story. They were great.

'I used to read all the Kipper books to my daughter when she was little. They were brilliant, because they were so funny and if a book's funny they're wonderful to read because the job's half done.  Her favourite was that book about the mole who wants to know who did a poo on his head - The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business! Whereas mine was I Love You This Much. I loved reading with her. It was a very sad day when she told me she could finish Harry Potter by herself.'

This year's launch coincided with Booktime research revealing that for 71% of parents, reading with their children is a highlight of the day. Over 1,000 parents and carers along with 200 primary school teachers participated in the study to explore the modern realities of children's reading habits. To find out more about the research, visit www.booktime.org.uk