I’ll happily admit that I go on about Bookstart a lot. I talked about it a little bit here, when the government first announced they were cutting the funding to Booktrust’s bookgifting schemes.
Bookstart is 20 years old this year, having been first established in 1992, though it did not become a national scheme until roughly 2000. You can read more about its history here. It was the first official bookgifting scheme in the world, and the UK should be hugely proud of that.
To celebrate its birthday and to try to secure its future, Booktrust are asking people to make a simple pledge in 2012: share 20 books.
Even though we are already nearly half-way through the year, there is still plenty of time to do so, so please make a pledge in support of this wonderful scheme:
As a bit of a celebration, I thought the Library Mice household could share some of their favourites. There are four of us, so that’s five books each to make it twenty.
Master O. (9 years old)
Mungo and the Picture Book Pirates – Timothy Knapman & Adam Stower
Billy’s Bucket – Kes Gray & Garry Parsons
Pants! – Giles Andreae & Nick Sharratt
Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey – Mini Grey
Morris the Mankiest Monster – Giles Andreae & Sarah McIntyre
Miss R. (7 years old)
Princess Poppy: Get Well Soon – Janey Louise Jones
Olivia Goes to Venice – Ian Falconer
You Choose – Pippa Goodhart & Nick Sharratt
The Princess Who Had No Kingdom – Ursula Jones & Sarah Gibb
Bella Ella Ballerina: The Sleeping Beauty – James Mayhew
Mister D.
(chose books that he particularly enjoyed reading to our children)
Bunny and Bee’s Playful Day – Sam Williams
Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs – Giles Andreae & Russell Ayto
The Sneetches – Dr Seuss
Duck in the Truck – Jez Alborough
The Biggest Bear – Adam Relf
Me
(chose books that lend themselves to funny voices, always a winner at bedtime)
What Shall We do with the Boo Hoo Baby? – Cressida Cowell & Ingrid Godon
It’s the Bear – Jez Alborough
Scaredy Squirrel – Mélanie Watt
Bottoms Up – Jeanne Willis & Adam Stower
Pig in the Pond – Martin Waddell & Jill Barton
I hope this might give you a few ideas. Needless to say those are all certified :
The Library Mice family wishes you all many wonderful book sharing moments, and a very Happy Birthday to Bookstart. Here’s to many more wonderful years!
Yes – happy birthday Bookstart, and happy reading lovely Library Mice family! What great choices. I’m glad it’s not too late: I’m getting on board now too 🙂
What a great selection of books! And yes, happy 20th birthday bookstart!
It was interesting to see my children’s selection: O’s is very “boyish”, and R’s is so “girly”! I am not a huge Princess Poppy fan but Janey Louise Jones is so amazing in book events, I am not surprised R is still in awe!