Online advent calendar fundraiser from BookTrust

Booktrust will next Monday (1st December) launch an online advent calendar to raise money for books for vulnerable children, featuring authors Malorie Blackman, Julia Donaldson and Chris Riddell.

Each day a picture of a celebrity or author will appear behind a calendar window with a recommendation for a children’s book for Christmas. They can choose any title as long as they didn’t write it themselves.

As well as Blackman, Donaldson and Riddell, author and journalist Grace Dent is taking part, as is author Jodi Picoult and former home secretary Alan Johnson.

In return for the recommendations, users are asked to donate £3 or more for every window they open. Booktrust will use the money to buy books for at least 1,000 vulnerable children who would not otherwise have a book at Crhistmas.

Johnson said: “I’m delighted to be able to help Booktrust raise money for vulnerable children thorough it’s online Advent calendar. A Christmas gift of reading can help open up a whole new world for disadvantaged children.”