English Cymraeg

Nominate a brilliant Early Years professional to be BookTrust's Story Sharer of the Year

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

31 July 2025

We want to celebrate our fantastic Early Years partners who are helping children and families to get reading.

A woman sharing a story with bookshelves behind her

We’re looking for a brilliant Early Years professional to be named BookTrust’s Story Sharer of the Year!

We want to celebrate one of our fantastic Early Years partners who uses BookTrust programmes to bring the magic of books and reading to families – but we need your help to find them.

Maybe they collaborate with other partners in a really interesting way, brilliantly model sharing stories so families can try it at home, or are fantastic at getting children talking about books.

What can be more important than bringing stories, books and reading into the lives of babies and young children? This is an act of love and something I have always been obsessed by going back to my days as the presenter of Play School back in the 1970s! I’m so happy to be judging BookTrust’s Story Sharer of the Year and I can’t wait to hear about inspirational work you do! Keep smiling!
Author, broadcaster and campaigner Baroness Floella Benjamin

What you need to know

We’re looking for nominations of Story Sharers who work with BookTrust Early Years programmes: this might be Bookstart Baby, Bookstart Early Years (Wales only), Bookstart Toddler and Pre-schooler (or Nursery in Wales), BookTrust Storytime, Pori Drwy Stori Nursery (Wales only) or our dual language or additional needs programmes.
Our Story Sharers could work in any kind of setting – from a community group to a library, children’s centre, nursery or anywhere else – as long as they use our programmes and have done so within the last 12 months.
We’re looking for Story Sharers who are going above and beyond to engage families who might not normally read together to have fun with books and stories – whether they’ve come up with creative ways of encouraging a love of reading or are great at offering support and guidance to parents and carers.
The winner will be chosen by a panel of judges including BookTrust Writer in Residence Camilla Reid and author, broadcaster and campaigner Baroness Floella Benjamin.
We’ll be announcing the winner in Story Sharer Week, which is taking place from 13–17 October. They’ll win a specially curated book bundle for their setting.
Please note that we’d like to publicly celebrate our winning Story Sharer on our website, in newsletters and on social media, so please consider whether this is something they’d be comfortable with when you’re submitting your nominations.

I’m delighted to be joining the judging panel for BookTrust’s Story Sharer of the Year – a super important award given in recognition of a partner who has engaged with families in a uniquely brilliant way! I’m sure we judges are going to have our work cut out to pick a winner from so many inspiring entries, but I can’t wait to get started!
Camilla Reid, early years author and BookTrust Writer-in-Residence

Nominations have now closed

Stay tuned for more information on our Story Sharer of the Year Award winner, who will be announced during Story Sharer Week from 13–17 October.