BookTrust revitalises its baby bag with two new books

BookTrust has revitalised its Bookstart Baby bag, which provides books to all children born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, encouraging families to start reading with their children as early as possible.

One of the two new books to be included in the Bookstart Baby bag is Tummy Time! (Mama Makes Books), a black and white fold-out board book designed to ensure babies get their daily tummy time, critical for their sensory, motor and visual development. The second title, Space Baby: Zoom to the Moon, illustrated by Kat Uno (Hachette Children’s Books), offers children and families a multisensory experience with bold visuals and simple sound-prompting text that is perfectly suited to encourage interaction with curious babies.  

The charity has partnered with every one of the local authorities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the books and bag are given to children via a health visitor, registrar, early years' professionals or through libraries. Families receive two engaging and age-appropriate books, selected by an independent panel of experts, finger puppets and an information sheet that explains to families the benefits of sharing stories and rhymes with their babies. The contents are funded by Arts Council England in England, the Welsh government and Department of Education in Northern Ireland.  

Jill Coleman, director of children’s books at BookTrust, said: “Reading together with children can have profound benefits affecting their health, wellbeing, sleep and social development. At BookTrust we believe that all children should be able to reap these life changing benefits and our new strategy is focused on finding innovative ways to ensure children from disadvantaged families are not left behind. Sharing stories with babies in their first year is a crucial step on that journey. Young babies will enjoy the bonding time that comes when families sit and read, share stories or rhyme together and these latest books are expertly placed to support families to create an engaging, multisensory and fun experience that we hope will kickstart a lifelong love of books and reading.” 

Penny Worms from Mama Makes Books added: “As a new publisher, it’s fitting that our first book is for a newborn baby. Why not encourage a book-loving habit from birth? We wondered what should a book for a newborn look like? It needed simple images with high-contrast colours to attract and hold their attention. A fold-out panorama of images gives them something to look at when doing tummy time or during a nappy change. We added photographs and a mirror to amuse them as they get older and there’s rhyming text too, to encourage active shared reading. As parents and now grandparents of a large, blended family, we know reading is a special bonding time when you both relax, communicate and connect, one-to-one. Happy times. And that is what Bookstart is all about.”  

Hachette Children’s Books said: “Reading books with babies is very important as it helps them to hear different words and sounds from a very early age. Babies love to reach for shiny textures on the pages of books, the colours and sparkle really grab their attention which helps them practise their hand-eye co-ordination as they interact with the book. The story of some brave little astronauts in Zoom to the Moon is also perfect to read before bed as part of a bedtime routine. It is never too soon to share books with little ones and to encourage them to take their very first steps on a lifelong journey and love of reading, learning and play.” 

A further book, 123 Do the Dinosaur by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw (Farshore), has also been selected for Bookstart Treasure, a programme in England that sees nurseries, playgroups or libraries gift a book pack to all three and four-year-olds, designed to encourage families to continue their reading journey through their child’s early years.