Bookshop.org's Read It Forward initiative with BookTrust 'drives up children's and YA sales'

Bookshop.org and BookTrust’s Read It Forward initiative has driven an increase in sales of children’s and YA titles from the platform, raising money to bring books to 1,000 children overall, the two organisations have said.

The initiative encourages parents, teachers, guardians and educators to purchase children’s books from Bookshop.org throughout the month of February, with 10% of the sales of each book sold to be donated to BookTrust. Children’s book sales were down by 9% in volume and 6% in value in the first part of the year compared to 2023, according to Nielsen BookScan, but despite this, Bookshop.org said it registered a double-digit year-on-year increase in children’s books sales in the first part of the year. 

The bestselling children’s books for the month of February on the platform included Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures (Bloomsbury Children’s), Greenwild by Pari Thomson, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli (Macmillan Children’s Books), and Dim Sum Palace by X Fang (Pushkin Children’s Books), which was February’s Children’s Book of the Month. Also among the bestselling titles were Benjamin Zephaniah and Nila Aye’s People Need People (Orchard Books) and M G Leonard’s Feather (Walker Books). 

"The money raised will help over 1,000 children from low-income backgrounds access books to support, or perhaps even start their reading journeys," said Lizzie Catford, director of Children’s Books at BookTrust. "This collaboration underscores our joint mission to nurture a love of reading and ensure every child can enjoy the magic of books, while also supporting much-valued independent bookshops. Our huge thanks to everyone who played a part, from the authors and publishers to the educators and supporters who all made it possible."

Nicole Vanderbilt, managing director of Bookshop.org UK, added: "We were delighted to see how Read It Forward made authors, parents, influencers, teachers, educators and more join forces, not only to help under-resourced families benefit from the joy of books, but also to financially support the independent booksellers on the Bookshop.org platform. We see this as the beginning of a great partnership and we look forward to working with BookTrust again in the future.”