Bookstart for families

Sharing books, stories and rhymes with your child from an early age can help create a lifelong reader. Bookstart is here to guide you on your child’s reading journey from 0-5 years.

Every child in England and Wales is entitled to a free Bookstart pack before they are 12 months old and again aged 3-4 years (27 months in Wales). Bookstart also gifts additional needs packs for babies and toddlers, as well as black-and-white booklets for newborns and dual language books.

Find out how you can get your packs and explore our website. You'll find amazing pages for all the family, including interactive storybooks and games, themed booklists, a bookfinder to give you inspiration, activities to make and do at home and much more.

Happy reading, singing and rhyming together.

Win the new picture book from the creators of The Gruffalo

About Bookstart

Mum and smiling boy looking at library books

What is Bookstart?

Bookstart is the world’s first national bookgifting programme, giving free books to all children in England and Wales at two key ages before school.

What Bookstart can offer you

Discover more about Bookstart's free universal, additional needs and newborn packs for children, plus The Rhyme Challenge and Rhymetimes.

Image of children with their packs at the SONI NI event August 2018

Bookstart in Northern Ireland

Find out about Arts Council NI Author Tours and catch up with the latest news from Bookstart Northern Ireland.

Bookstart in Wales

Through Bookstart, BookTrust Cymru give every child in Wales their own books to have at home and supports families to read together regularly.

Ore Oduba peeking over A Busy Day for Birds

National Bookstart Week

National Bookstart Week was replaced in 2019 by Pyjamarama - a celebration of bedtime stories. In June, families took part in fun community events and picked up free books to enjoy at home.

Do you work with children aged 0-5?

Visit our Bookstart for practitioners section for tailored information, guidance and resources to help you deliver our flagship early years programme.

Explore Bookstart for practitioners

Looking for your next story? Try our Bookfinder

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Get perfect picture book ideas

Our themed booklists are full of brilliant book ideas for little ones. Just print them out or jot them down and see what you can pick up at your local library.

Best Books for 1-year-olds

Board books with flaps are great for toddlers at this age. Take a peek at some of our favourite books for sharing with 1-year-olds.

Best Books for 2-year-olds

Two-year-olds love joining in with actions and guessing what will happen next. We've picked out some brilliant books we think your child will love.

Best Books for 4-year-olds

Why not try some of our favourite books for 4-year-olds - slightly longer stories they'll love chatting to you about. From bad bunnies to bug school, storytime giggles are guaranteed.

More from BookTrust

Storybooks and games

Have some fun

Read along together with our brilliant interactive storybooks and play counting, colouring and drawing games.

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