Bookstart
Bookstart is designed to support families discover the magic of shared reading from their earliest days. Find out more about the programmes we offer.
Programmes and resources for practitioners
-
Every child in England, Wales and Northern Ireland aged 0 to 12 months is eligible for our free book pack, designed to help families to read and share stories with their child from as early as possible.
-
Our Bookstart Toddler and Pre-schooler/Nursery programmes for children are designed to support families to read and share stories together.
-
Our Welsh bilingual Early Years programme for children is designed to support families to read and share stories together.
-
It’s never too early to start sharing books, stories and rhymes with your child. Through Bookstart, BookTrust Cymru supports families across Wales to read together regularly.
-
BookTrust is dedicated to encouraging families of all cultures to engage with books. We want to ensure that every child has access to books and the opportunity to enjoy reading.
-
BookTrust Storytime is an exciting library experience for families, offering a fun, free, and easy way to entertain under 5s at local libraries.
What is Bookstart?
Delivered across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Bookstart programme contains books, resources and activities that encourage and support family reading for young children at different stages as part of our early years reading journey.
Specialist Bookstart resources are also available for families with children with additional needs or those with English as an additional language.
Reading together early in life helps nurture a love of books, stories and rhymes which gives access to the life-changing benefits of reading – important for all children, but especially those from low-income families or vulnerable backgrounds.
‘Receiving the Bookstart pack seemed to have the most pronounced impact among those families who formerly did not often engage in shared reading with their baby or toddler. Bookstart seems to have reminded them of its importance and provided them with the resources to act on this knowledge.’
(Hines and Brooks, 2009, p.24)
-
Reading in the Early Years: Why starting shared reading early matters and the role of Bookstart Baby
What our research with families from low-income backgrounds in the UK tells us about the importance of shared reading in the early years, and how our Bookstart Baby programmes can support this.
The Bookstart scheme continues to grow and thrive. The quality of packs has been outstanding and always well received. It is nice to take to parents such a positive message, and as a lifelong avid reader I know how much pleasure there is in reading and endorse Bookstart wholeheartedly. Long may it reign!
Julia Freeland Health Visitor, Hull
Bookstart book selection (information for publishers)
Books in the Bookstart packs have been selected by a panel including librarians, health visitors, booksellers and other children’s book experts. The panel aims to choose books with content that is engaging and inclusive for toddlers and babies from all backgrounds.
BookTrust contacts publishers to request submissions and purchase books. Publishers submit these titles directly to BookTrust and a longlist is sent to our selection panel to consider. The panel read the books, getting feedback from children where possible, and then meet to select the books for the pack.
We are currently unable to accept self-published titles for our programmes.
