Creativity

Booktrust's creative campaigns promote books of all kinds – children's books, teenage fiction, short stories, translated novels, books about London – as well as writing projects and picture book illustration.

We've used television advertising to encourage more dads to read with their children and invited authors to become Booktrust online writers in residence.

Our blogs, and our presence on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, allow us to tell our followers what we are doing whenever and wherever we are doing it.

Expertise

Booktrust's websites feature reviews and recommendations of thousands of books for readers of all ages and abilities, as well as interviews with authors, feature articles, downloadable resources, interactive games, and much more.

The shortlists and winners of our book prizes reflect the best in contemporary publishing, from babies' board books and teenage novels, to fiction, non-fiction and poetry by writers aged 35 and under.

Impact

Every year we send out a staggering 2,010,000 Bookstart packs in England alone (plus 70,000 to Wales and 75,000 to Northern Ireland). Booktime and Booked Up packs each go to 670,000 children. That's almost 3.5 million packs. Every year.

By working with partners, we are able to reach new audiences. Recent examples include sponsorship of the Booktrust: Power of Reading Award for NIACE; and working with other literary and free speech organisations as one of the founding members of the Free Word Centre.

We are also proud of, and grateful for, our links with the many publishers who have worked with us over the years and continue to support us.

Independence

Booktrust prides itself on its independence. All the books in our bookgifting packs and the titles we recommend on our websites and in our publications are chosen by us without influence from publishers or government.

Read our book selection panel guidelines

Responsiveness

Booktrust is aware of public debates about literacy and access to books. Our education projects in particular (Everybody Writes; Children's Book Week; our research into spending on school libraries) provide targeted responses to these debates.

Our specialised bookgifting packs are tailored to deaf, partially-sighted, and looked after children – and those for whom English is not their first language.

Find out about our strategic aims and how our work fulfils these aims