Welcome to BookTrust Northern Ireland
Through our reader development programmes and work as an arts organisation, BookTrust in Northern Ireland makes a positive impact on children, families and local communities.
In line with the rest of the UK our aim is to ensure that everyone has access to books in their home and is inspired to engage with the world of reading for pleasure and to improve their life chances.
What we do
Bookstart Baby in Northern Ireland
Every baby born in Northern Ireland receives a Bookstart Baby pack from their Health Visitor. Find out more about the programme, funded by the Department of Education.
Letterbox Club in Northern Ireland
The Letterbox Club in Northern Ireland is funded by Fostering Network Northern Ireland as part of its Fostering Achievement programme, in partnership with the Northern Ireland Government. Once signed-up each child receives their own colourful parcel of books, maths games, stationery every month for six months.
Time to Read
Free book for every Reception-aged child: find out how your school will receive the book and have fun with reading tips, activity ideas and book recommendations.
Supporting Families During the Pandemic
BookTrust helped families across the country to engage with books and storytelling during lockdown, offering support, advice and free books to disadvantaged families who were hardest hit by lockdown. Reading can be an important escape for many children, and shared reading supports language development, confidence, communication skills and resilience. However, with schools and libraries closed for many weeks, many children were at risk of missing out.
Northern Ireland Author Tours
The BookTrust NI Author Tour is a project offering children and young people access to poets, authors and illustrators. Funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, it showcases the best of children’s literature and takes well known authors, illustrators and their books out to communities that would not typically engage with the arts. Children taking part receive a personally signed book to take home, treasure and share with their families as a legacy of the project.
Northern Ireland Partnerships
BookTrust NI is very proud to work in partnership with local companies and organisations to help deliver our work of getting children reading. We are incredibly grateful to all of our supporters. Their generous commitment of time and money help us ensure that nobody misses out on the life-changing benefits that reading can bring.
Read the latest BookTrust NI update
Find out about our On the Same Page conference, our partnerships delivering thousands of books to children across Northern Ireland, the new Children's Writing Fellow, author and illustrator tours and lots more...
McIlveen confirms funding for Bookstart Baby programme
A programme to encourage a love of reading in children from a young age is to be part-funded by the Department of Education.
BookTrust: Q & A with Dara McAnulty
As part of her Northern Ireland Stories Tour Sophie Kirtley, author of The Way to Impossible Island, interviews Dara McAnulty, author of Wild Child .
BookTrust delivers 20,000 free books in Lockdown
Lockdown has been a challenging time for families and has limited many children’s access to education. BookTrust NI has joined forces with local partners to get resources of books and packs to families on the ground
