** Collaboration with Booktrust. Some of the featured books were gifted. However all views and opinions are my own
Those who know me will know that I’m a huge advocate of reading with your children from a young age (in the womb for us!). Therefore, I’m delighted to be taking part in BookTrust’s popular campaign – Time to Read – which encourages families to read together more often.
What is the Time to Read Campaign?
From 17th September until the 23rd September, Booktrust will be launching their third Time to Read campaign which aims to encourage parents to read with their children and promotes the benefits of doing this. Over the next week, they will be sharing a range of exciting activities including downloadable resources. As well as this, @Booktrust will also be holding a Twitter party on Thursday 20th September 8-9pm!
Also, as part of the campaign, Booktrust will be delivering 700,000 copies of Little Monkey by Marta Altes to reception aged children across England! To find out more about this year’s book or for your chance to win your own bundle of Macmillan Children’s books, read below.
So Why Read?
In our household, reading is a daily occurrence and my little one’s room is full to the brim with illustrated books.
For us, reading a book isn’t just part of a bedroom routine to settle children down for sleep. Reading is about inspiring them and creating ideas. It’s about broadening their imaginations. It’s about fun!
Did you know that children who read tend to perform better at school? I cannot stress to the pupils I teach just how important it is. Reading expands vocabulary, fills children with ideas and encourages independent thinking. And what’s more, shared reading is a great way to bond with your child so why wouldn’t we do it?
Reading Helps in Difficult Situations
As well as developing imagination and vocabulary, illustrated books can help in some of the most difficult situations. I have written previously about books which help children to understand their emotions. More recently, I found myself turning to Julia Donaldson’s The Paper Dolls to tackle the issue of death.
Fortunately for us, we had not found ourselves having to explain that somebody had died. Instead, we were faced with the news that my mum had been diagnosed with cancer. Her outlook, at the time, was unknown. Once this devastating news had set in, my thoughts turned to my toddler who absolutely dotes on his Nana. What if the worst was to happen?! How do you explain death to somebody so young? That’s when I remembered ‘The Paper Dolls’.
The Paper Dolls follows a little girl playing with her paper chain dolls until the dolls suddenly meet an untimely end. In a very child friendly way, the book explains how the paper dolls go into the little girl’s memory along with a selection of lost and broken items, and a very kind granny. For me, this is an extremely delicate way of explaining where things go when they’re gone.
After reading the book, we often talk about things that have gone into our memory like his toy truck that didn’t survive the fall down the stairs or his ball which disappeared over the fence, never to be seen again. It is all very simplistic but at 2 years old, that’s all it needs to be. It’s the understanding that these things are gone and they will not be coming back – except in our memories.
Macmillan Children’s Book
As part of our involvement in the campaign, we were sent four beautifully illustrated books including this year’s featured book Little Monkey by Marta Altes.
Each book is packed with bright, detailed images which bring the book to life and offer lots of talking points. We enjoyed talking about all the oddly named creatures that passed through the Ministry of Silly Animal Names in ‘You’re Called What?!’ By Kes Gray. Each animal was fantastically drawn by illustrator Nikki Dyson and peaked curiosity in my little reader (and me!).
The second book, ‘Vera Jewel is Late for School’ by Nicola Kent, is such an attractive, colourful book which follows Vera’s unsuccessful attempts to get to school. Each page is crammed with illustration which tells the story excellently.
‘I am an Artist’ by Marta Altes, yet again, offers detailed illustrations which compliment the story. This one made me laugh as it follows a little boy who thinks he’s an artist. However, his mum has a slightly different interpretation of his art…mess! I love how the pictures allow the reader to interpret the story for themselves, encouraging independent thinking.
The final book, and definitely our favourite, is the Time to Read featured book Little Monkey by Marta Altes. The book is about Monkey who decides to be brave and climb the tallest tree. Through each page, the illustrations tell the story showing his journey along the way. My little one loved trying to spot the naughty tiger in the later pages of the book.
Giveaway to Win Macmillan Children’s Book Bundle
We’re giving away a Macmillan Children’s book bundle to one lucky reader. The bundle will include the four books featured in the Time to Read campaign (as seen below). All you have to do is enter via Gleam below:
Don’t forget to take part in the Twitter party for the Time to Read campaign on Thursday! You can also share your reading adventures using @booktrust and #TimetoRead
Visit booktrust.org.uk for more information.
90 comments
we love reading, books are so very important, lovely giveaway
They really are 🙂
The books sound fabulous – thank you for such a great write up.
They’re lovely books! 🙂
Reading is so important. These are lovely books! My niece and nephew would love them.
Ahh they’re fab. I’m sure they would 🙂
I love The book Trust! What a wonderful giveway
It’s such a great charity, isn’t it? 🙂
these books look fab for my daughter
They’re lovely books! 🙂
Great blog. Be there on Thursday.
Great! See you there 🙂
perfect giveaway the kids will love
love reading my nieces and nepheww bedtimes stories xx so important to read to kids x
It really is so important 🙂
Fab giveaway my 3 kids love to read
What a great bundle of books, my little bookworm niece and nephew will love these!
Wonderful way to learn and have fun Thankyou
A great book bundle. I like the sound of Little Monkey.
Little Monkey is such a great choice for Booktrust’s feature book 🙂
Love these books and love your blog x
Ahh thanks so much 🙂
These look fab, my daughter is just getting into books now (she’s only 7 months) and giggles when we get some books out.
Aww such a great age when they start noticing the books a bit more 🙂
A lovely collection of books my granddaughter would love to read them.
Love story time with the kids
These books sound fantastic. I am planning to do a book advent calendar this year. Reading a different book each night in December
This is such a good idea!
The Book Trust do such a brilliant job, my children have enjoyed every single pack they have received and some of the books are still favourites now!
They do! They always pick fantastic feature books.
These books look great to sit and read with the children then try and get them to read them back to me. Learning to read at an early age is so very important.
I love books to read to my grandchildren, they love it too.
We all love reading in this family, it’s such an important thing for kids 🙂
Great giveaway
They’re lovely books.
These look wonderful books for little ones, love the colourful illustrations
Would love to win these fab books for my nephew, he loves books.
l love books and my grandsosns have inherited this love of books from me
We love to read together, it’s fun, a great bonding tool, and the kids learn well from it xx
You can never have too many books! Lovely giveaway 🙂
Absolutely agree 🙂
id love this for my nephew who loves books
I’m sure my granddaughter would love these books
Lovely range of books. My kids enjoy reading 🙂
We love our books on a night time this would be so wonderful. Thank you x
I think its so important to encourage children to read from an early age
We love books in this house. My son is just starting to read too
These would be perfect for my youngest nephew
My daughter loves me reading her books, she likes to tell me what is going on by the pictures which is very clever for just turning 4. Fab giveaway. Thanks x
My daughter loves me reading her books, she likes to tell me what’s going on by the pictures which is very clever for just turning 4. Fab Thanks x
Aww this is a great bundle of books, we love our bed time stories.
What a wonderful giveaway – nothing beats books
Thank you for a really lovely giveaway.
my two year old is a total book worm we always need more books
We love our bedtime stories it’s a great time just to relax and wind down
Wonderful prize package.
A fabulous bundle of books. The illustrations are brilliant.
Reading is so important to children ❤️? my kids would love this x
My god-daughter’s just started to read on her own. There’s something magical about seeing her disappear into a corner quietly with a book.
Fabulous book giveaway, its so important for kids develop good habits to enjoy reading and books early on
Reading is so important isn’t it, we read a lot in our house too. You’re called what?! is one of my of my daughters favorites & I like the little fact section at the back. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve borrowed it from the library this year, she’d love her own copy.
A lovely selsction of books to share with my grandchildren!
Lovely set of books my little grandson has just started school so reading together as much as we can and we do lots of crafts
My girls love there books and this looks fab x
I love reading do and with my children so this would be great!
Thanks for the great prize and competition. Good luck everyone!
What a fab bundle of books William and Ava love their books
My little girl loves reading xx
Gorgeous books!
They sound fabulous. My daughters would enjoy them.
It is so important to share books with children when they are young and learn to love them.
Such beautifully illustrated books! The perfect additions to my son’s book case x
Lovely giveaway thankyou for the opportunity to win
Wow these books look amazing. Thank you for the chance to win ?
Love reading , can’t get enough books?
Fab giveaway, my grandchildren would love having these in their ever growing book collection.
my granddaughter loves reading
I love having a house full of books and children’s books are the best. So much colour, fun and simple delights. My children all love books and reading together is a very important part of our lives.
We’re a big family of bookworms so love reading but it does have to compete with electronics with most children these days so it’s always good to see anything encouraging children to read
Definitely! I’m constantly on a mission to encourage the children I teach to pick up a book instead of their electronics at home 🙂
Books are a very important part of our house ,my daughters loved reading and being read to and now there daughters do to
My Daughter loves to read – her favourite book is The Gruffalo 🙂
Oo we like this one in our house too 🙂
We absolutely treasure books and reading in our home, and always make sure that we read to our girls everyday, it’s so important.
Lovely book bundle. We love reading in our house, we have always done it and I have to say the kids love it. My eldest is a fantastic reader and I know my youngest is going to be the same. At the moment she likes to look at pictures and make her own story up.
This would be great for for nefew when he’s abit older.
I love reading with my Grandson
I have always loved to read and it’s very important to me that my son shares that love. We have lots of books but I’m always happy to add more!
Lovely books, my children love reading x
know that my granddaughter and I would enjoy reading these books together.