What is Bookstart Corner?

Find out about Bookstart Corner, who it’s for and what it can help you achieve.

Mum and baby on sofa with Elmer book

Bookstart Corner is a targeted programme run by BookTrust. It offers settings free resources and training to support families who need additional help to share books, stories and rhymes with their children aged 12-30 months.

Settings are best placed to identify which families are most likely to benefit from the support. The resources can be delivered in different ways according to the requirements and capacity of the settings, local need and the needs of individual families. 

Delivering Bookstart Corner: identifying families, delivering sessions and tailoring to meet different needs

'This group has got me reading more and doing more activities with [my child] at home, and we do more activities following the story in a book.' Parent quote from a Bookstart Corner practitioner

A Bookstart Coordinator in each local authority distributes the resources to the settings that are best suited to deliver Bookstart Corner to families who need additional help. It is delivered by a range of practitioners and settings: children’s centres, libraries, nurseries, health settings, women’s refuges and other services that work in early years or with targeted families. 

Bookstart Corner resources are designed to enable partners to meet a number of outcomes: 

  • Increase parents’ and carers’ understanding of the importance of sharing books, stories and rhymes with their child
  • Improve parents’ and carers’ confidence in sharing books, stories and rhymes with their child
  • Make sharing books, rhymes and stories fun for families
  • Expand parents’ and carers’ knowledge on ways to share books, stories and rhymes with their child
  • Support parents and carers to develop a reading habit with their children