Passing on books to Children’s Book Project is a great gift from one child to another – and the impact can be transformational

We live in a golden age of children’s books – with a huge variety of brilliant works of fiction and fact to fire up imagination and transport children to other times and places. While many children enjoy a wonderful range of reading matter, via school and public library, plus gifts at birthday and Christmas, there are too many who don’t.

The statistics on book poverty are stark. One in ten disadvantaged children in the UK has no books at home, and one in three owns less than ten books. Sometimes families don’t prioritise books at home because there have been negative experiences around reading for a child’s parents. Or there may be other priorities or needs that have to come before books.

One important aspect of this is that owning (rather than borrowing) books has a direct influence on children’s wellbeing and life outcomes – helping them progress in school and presenting the opportunity for space and time to escape into a great story. And, as we all know, sometimes a favourite book can be reread time and again and treasured for years afterwards.

Enter a brilliant scheme to help share the love of reading. Children can get involved in gifting the books they’ve read, didn’t get on with or have outgrown. Children’s Book Project works to redistribute books – aiming to ‘change their story’. Books donated are gifted to children via partner schools, prisons, women’s groups and food banks.

“All you need to do is find your nearest drop-off point and arrange a time to hand over your literary treasures”

It’s brilliantly simple to gift a good read and give a book a new life. Over 300 schools and community groups around the nation have registered on Children’s Book Project’s map, so all you need to do is find your nearest drop-off point and arrange a time to hand over your literary treasures.

Asda has also got behind the book drive for Children’s Book Project, so you can now drop off books at one of 388 of its stores across the UK. It stepped up its support of the scheme having piloted it in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and London earlier this year. That pilot gathered some 6,000 books and the supermarket is hoping to make it to 20,000 books with so many extra drop-off points.

Children’s Book Project also welcomes other community-based action – either within schools or organisations. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to organise a book drive that encourages everyone to go through their bookshelves and then hand over unwanted or outgrown reading matter.

There’s a real need for fiction and non fiction for every age and stage of childhood – gently used rather than dog-eared are requested to give recipients the best experience. It’s a great way to save good reads from gathering dust or ending their days in at a recycling centre or landfill. More importantly, gifting a beautiful book to another child gives them the opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of owning and reading it as many times as they choose.

Children’s Book Project childrensbookproject.co.uk

Further reading: Coram Beanstalk and reading champions

Asda Children's Book Project Feature Featured