BookTrust Cymru reveal new bilingual Bookstart Baby and Bookstart Early Years books
Published on: 18 November 2024
This week BookTrust have announced the brand new books which will be given to all new babies and 2–3 year olds in Wales as part of the Welsh Government-funded Bookstart Baby and Early Years programme.
Through a robust partnership between BookTrust, health visiting and libraries, health visitors gift Bookstart Baby and Early Years packs to all families in Wales, ensuring that children and families can enjoy the wide-ranging benefits that sharing books and stories can bring.
Bookstart Baby provides a reading intervention during a baby's first year and offers a first step to helping parents read with their children at home. Every baby born in Wales is entitled to a Bookstart Baby pack, normally gifted at the 6-month health check. The book included in the packs is selected by expert early years professionals with input from families themselves to make sure they meet the needs of parents, carers and children.
This year's new bilingual title, published by Atebol, is Llyfr Codi Fflap Cyntaf Babi Pi-po / Baby's Very First Lift-the-Flap Peek-a-boo, written by Fiona Watt, illustrated by Stella Baggott and adapted into Welsh by Glyn Saunders Jones.
With an eye-catching bright yellow cover featuring a friendly panda, this adorable first book for babies has sturdy flaps for the animals to hide behind, and fingertrails and cut-out shapes for babies to explore on every page. Babies will enjoy playing peek-a-boo with monkey, koala, lion and other friendly animals before seeing themselves in the mirror on the final spread.
Bookstart Early Years provides a further reading intervention, supporting families to have fun sharing stories together. Every 2–3-year old in Wales is entitled to a Bookstart Early Years pack, normally gifted at the 27-month health check. Early years experts offer integral input into the choice of book within this pack, ensuring it provides an engaging story for families to share while also supporting those vital speech, language and communication skills of the child.
The bilingual title chosen to be gifted as part of the Bookstart Early Years pack is Ffrindiau Gorau, Ffrindiau Gwych / Best Friends, Busy Friends, written by Susan Rollings and illustrated by Nichola Cowdery. This book has been adapted into Welsh by Endaf Griffiths and published by Atebol and features an inclusive cast of diverse families and friends having fun together at home, within a nursery setting, at the park, and other spaces.
The fun rhyming story shows children running, swimming, dancing and taking part in many other activities, encouraging movement and physical literacy.
Research from BookTrust has found that children who benefit from high-quality early years support are more likely to achieve their early development goals and have better mental health, educational outcomes, empathy and creativity in the long term.
Sharing books, stories and rhymes as a basis for playing, talking, singing and exploring in their early years provides the biggest boost to children developmentally, enhancing cognitive, physical, social and emotional growth and development during a period of significant brain growth. Shared reading also supports bonding between children and their parents.
Diana Gerald MBE, CEO of BookTrust, said: "It's never too early to start sharing stories and reading together with children.
"Starting when they are babies is the best way to lay the foundations for a lifelong reading habit, giving them the chance to experience the life changing benefits of reading.
"Having bright, colourful and interactive books that appeal to all families, even those who don't see themselves as readers, is key to encouraging families on their reading journeys. Shared reading from the earliest days can be an engaging and multisensory experience for all babies that can kickstart a love of books."
Bookstart Baby has supported families with newborn babies for over 25 years. Through the programme, every year, health visitors, libraries, registrars, and many other early years professionals give out more than half a million Bookstart Baby packs, reaching 90% of all newborn babies in England, Northern Ireland and Wales (with families in England and Northern Ireland receiving an English language version of the pack).
BookTrust also offer a number of other programmes including Bookstart Toddler for children aged 1-2 years who would benefit the most from a further reading intervention at that stage, Pori Drwy Stori Nursery which includes high quality resources and a book gift for 20,000+ children in nursery settings and Pori Drwy Stori Reception, which provides further resources including a book pack to Reception age children in all maintained schools in Wales. In addition, 3-13 year old children who are looked after can receive parcels containing books, games, author letters and more through the Letterbox Club programme. In Wales, this work is funded by the Welsh Government.