5 best BookTrust moments from 2023

2. ... And making new friends

As our partnership network has expanded, we've been making some really exciting connections. As we grow our support for vulnerable children, for example, we've loved working with the organisations St Christopher's Fellowship, Kinship, and Adoption Focus to support families and find out more about how we can help.

We were also really proud to become Build-a-Bear's UK Literacy Partner, and are grateful for their generous support of our work.

3. Celebrating how Dads Make Stories Magic

We loved launching the Dads Make Stories Magic campaign in partnership with Farshore and HarperCollins Children's Books during the summer! Sharing books is a great way for dads and their children to spend time together and has fantastic benefits - but research shows that fewer dads than mums are reaping these rewards, so this campaign was all about making sure no-one missed out.

We shared lots of tips and tricks, but our absolute favourite thing about the campaign was hearing from real dads about what a difference reading with their children had made to them.

4. The RENEW x BookTrust Biodiversity Storytelling Summit

We were thrilled to team up with RENEW and other exciting partners for the first Biodiversity Storytelling Summit! Held at Kew Gardens, this inspiring event brought scientists, authors, illustrators and publishers together with a shared mission - to explore the representation of biodiversity in children's literature and harness the magic of reading to improve access to the natural world. We're really excited to see where this collaboration goes next - and which stories about biodiversity start being produced!

5. Sharing the Benefits of Reading... and lots of other exciting research!

We were really proud to release our interactive Benefits of Reading tool earlier this year, which brings together a range of academic studies to share the benefits of reading for young people. It's organised into four key themes: overcoming disadvantage caused by inequalities, mental wellbeing and self-esteem, progress at school across the curriculum, and creativity and empathy.

But we also shared lots of other research too, including three briefings based on our unique Family Survey that explore reading in the early years. We also had great feedback from children, families and partners on our Letterbox Club, Early Years and BookTrust Storytime programmes - and were thrilled to win two Market Research Society Awards for using research to inform our work.

Other highlights

That's not all we've been up to! Some of our other favourite 2023 moments were:

• SF Said and Michelle Robinson offering tips and tricks to get children and families reading as our two Writers in Residence of the year
• Sharing more fun Poetry Prompts with Waterstones Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho to help build a love of poems with children - including a series featuring special guests like Chris Smith, MC Grammar and Nicola Davies
• Launching our new Primary Hub, offering support and resources to help primary schools build a reading for pleasure culture
• Visiting schools across the country for special BookTrust Represents author visits - and broadcasting virtual events with Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Candy Gourlay, and SF Said to hundreds of schools
• Our Chief Executive Diana Gerald receiving an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours in recognition of her services to Reading and Children's Literature
• Teaming up with Yorkshire's elected mayors to commit to promoting early years reading
• Watching Joseph Coelho discuss the power of poetry and books with our Patron, The Queen of the United Kingdom

Now, we just can't wait to see what 2024 will bring...

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