The Queen hosts BookTrust’s 100-year reception as new Peter Rabbit book Four Happy Bunnies revealed as Bookstart Baby title

Peter Rabbit: Four Happy Bunnies is the first bespoke book to be created for Bookstart Baby. 

Featuring felt flaps, bright colours and rhymes to engage even the youngest readers, it was developed by BookTrust in collaboration with publisher Penguin Random House Children’s. 

Bookstart Baby has supported families with newborn babies for over 30 years. Health visitors, registrars, and many other early years partners take part in the programme, which reaches 90% of all newborn babies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The programme provides books to families along with help and advice on early reading, often given at one of the health checks in the first nine months of a baby’s life. 

This is also the first time our sister organisation Scottish Book Trust will be gifting the same book. The book will be included in their Bookbug Baby Bag from March 2026 and means that Four Happy Bunnies will be going to babies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, ensuring families across the UK have equal access to the magic of shared reading and book ownership.

BookTrust research shows that reading from the earliest moments has a powerful impact at a critical stage of children’s development, helping them to build strong bonds with caregivers and develop important life skills, beyond literacy, as they grow. 

Francesca Dow, MD Penguin Random House Children’s UK, said she was ​“incredibly proud” to have partnered with BookTrust to create Four Happy Bunnies.

As well as hearing about Four Happy Bunnies, the event was a chance for The Queen to celebrate the impact made by BookTrust since it was first founded 100 years ago. 

Her Majesty was joined at the centenary reception by authors including Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Julia Donaldson, Malorie Blackman, Richard Osman, Baroness Floella Benjamin and BookTrust’s President Sir Michael Morpurgo. 

Each year, BookTrust gets millions of children reading, especially those from low-income families or vulnerable backgrounds. It has grown over the decades to become the UK’s largest reading charity and now works with 30,000 local partners, reaching 1.4 million children each year across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Alongside designing programmes that encourage children and families to experience the lifelong benefits of shared reading, BookTrust is a leading source of evidence on the impact of reading on young children, particularly those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. 

BookTrust and Cottrell-Boyce also launched the Reading Rights report this year, highlighting inequalities in reading and access to books and calling for leadership at local, regional and national level to tackle the problem. 

BookTrust’s Co-CEO Diana Gerald MBE said she was ​“honoured” that The Queen had hosted the event.

“We’ve come a long way since 1925, and we have so much to be proud of – but the need for BookTrust is now clearer than ever,” she said. ​“Sharing stories with young children can have transformative effects on bonding, happiness and wellbeing – but so many children are still missing out. 

“That’s why the Bookstart Baby programme is so vital. Peter Rabbit is an instantly recognisable character many new parents will fondly remember from their own childhoods. Together with Penguin Random House Children’s, we’ve developed an engaging book that’s perfect for families to share.”

Meanwhile, Cottrell-Boyce said: ​“The only thing we know for certain about what the future holds for our children is that they’ll need to know how to be happy. 

“Shared reading – especially in the early years – helps create this apparatus of happiness in ourselves; it gives us the opportunity to live rich and fulfilling lives. But right now, there is a risk this privilege is enjoyed by a lucky few – and that’s not fair.

“BookTrust has been working for 100 years to make the joy of reading something for everyone, so that every child is given this life-long hug.

“I’ve seen first-hand the ways in which they support everyone on the front line of family life – including the astonishingly brilliant professionals, the librarians, educators, community workers, health visitors – to bring reading to life in the most incredible ways, sparking a lifetime of opportunity, and happiness.”