Readers of all ages are being encouraged to share their favourite books as part of the Bookstart 20 campaign.
Bookstart 20 invites everyone to celebrate the early years reading programme’s 20th anniversary by making a simple pledge to share 20 books in 2012. This can be by sharing books with children of family or friends or by sharing books with children in a school, pre-school or library.
The pledge can be made on a postcard, available in all of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s libraries, or online at http://www.booktrust.org.uk/bookstart20.
Councillor David Dixon (Lid-Dem, Oldfield), Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “It’s never too early to start sharing books with your baby and give them a head start in life. Bath & North East Somerset Council’s libraries provide a valuable resource to families, with more and more under-fives joining their local library every year. Programmes such as Bookstart play a large part in helping the Council to encourage children to enjoy reading from an early age.”
Cllr David Dixon will be joining local picture book author Kathryn White and Don Foster, MP for Bath, to help launch the Bookstart 20 campaign at Bath Library at 11.30am on Friday 11 May.
Local people are also being asked to name their favourite picture book and to say why it is their favourite. A “Top 20” of picture books will be compiled as the year progresses.
Cllr Dixon said that ‘Dear Zoo’ by Rod Campbell is his favourite. “It was one of the first books that we bought a copy of for each of our children. When they were small we read it to them many times – it’s just one of those books that you can enjoy with your kids over and over again,” he added.
Don Foster MP named ‘But Where is the Green Parrot’ by Thomas and Wanda Zacharias as his favourite: “My children and grandchildren have all loved this timeless classic. It’s a great way to engage even the youngest children in the excitement of books.”
People can join in by nominating their favourite picture books at any Bath & North East Somerset Council library, online at http://www.facebook/Bathlibraries, or on the Council’s Twitter feed @bathnes with the hash tag #BANESbookstart20.
Dads and male carers, including granddads are particularly welcome to get involved as part of the Council’s Celebrating Fatherhood campaign.
The Bookstart 20 campaign celebrates everything that the early years reading programme has achieved since it began in 1992. Over 64,000 free books have been given in Bookstart packs to the children of Bath and North East Somerset since the programme was launched here in 2005.
