Catrina Skepper: Reading is a wonderful way to fuel your child's imagination whist forging a close bond with them at the same time. Bookstart is a national program that provides free books to all babies and children, no matter who they are or where there came from across the UK. Rosemary Clarke, the Director of Bookstart is here today to tell us more. Welcome Rosemary!
Rosemary Clarke: Thank you Catrina.
Catrina Skepper: It is an incredible scheme, but tell us first of all, I mean, Bookstart. Some parents might be familiar with, but what is it exactly?
Rosemary Clarke: Well, it's the most beautifully simple idea that if you give children books from when they're very tiny, they will grow to have a love and appreciation and a familiarity and a confidence with books.
So, that will stand in the main good stead, not only when they begin their formal education, but right the way throughout the whole of their lives.
Catrina Skepper: What do mean by babies like?
Rosemary Clarke: We're taking of tiny babies.
Catrina Skepper: Few months old?
Rosemary Clarke: Yes.
Catrina Skepper: You, your organization is giving every child in the country a book.
Rosemary Clarke: 715,000 babies every year are entitled to Bookstart pack.
Catrina Skepper: Wow!
Rosemary Clarke: So, it's a huge task. Unfortunately, the charity which administrates Bookstart and which originated it, is called Booktrust. Our sole purpose in life is to encourage people to love books. And we started with Bookstart.
The good thing about Bookstart is that we drew a tremendous amount of support. We have government funding and we also have public/private partnership with lots of children's publishers and they all are the sponsors of our books.
So, it's this enormous partnership of everybody being committed to giving children the enjoyment and the pleasure of books. Way, way, way before they ever to get to school and they need to worry about formal learning, this has given them the confidence.
Catrina Skepper: Apart from everything else, this is the most wonderful. This is a pack right. This is a start pack, what you call Bookstart. How do you get this first off? Because I know how I was given my first one, through actually a health visitor when I went for check up.
Rosemary Clarke: Yes.
Catrina Skepper: But is that the normal distribution system?
Rosemary Clarke: The vast majority of Bookstart packs go out through health visitors.
Catrina Skepper: For seven to nine months.
Rosemary Clarke: Usually between seven to nine months. You really need to talk to your health visitor to find out precisely in your area, but usually it's between the seven and nine months. And the professionals that we work with, with Bookstart are the library services and health visitor services.
So, one of the things that you get alongside your Bookstart pack is, an invitation to join the library. So, I either of those of two --
Catrina Skepper: And you are never too young to join a library?
Rosemary Clarke: You can join when you are one day old, which is amazing, but can join when you're one day old.
Catrina Skepper: Inside the pack, you'll have how many books, one book?
Rosemary Clarke: No. Two.
Catrina Skepper: Two books. So, you're always be targeting at to the very young. I mean, can I just see what's in it? Like having a goodie bag, it's so much fun. See, this would be 'Baby Bear's Rhymes To Remember'. Well obviously, a mother might say, when my child is going to start learning rhymes, not for a quite well yet.
Rosemary Clarke: That's right.
Catrina Skepper: However, reading a book like this to your baby, is actually, incredibly helpful. Isn't it? It's a language development.
Rosemary Clarke: It's about the joy of language. It's about immersing your child in language and giving them a very rich language environment. So, that's not one of the books which is directly for the baby, but if you dip in again, you'll find --
Catrina Skepper: Let me see. Hang on a second. There are several things in, there is also literature and the art. I found something which makes a noise. This is definitely for the baby.
Rosemary Clarke: That's gorgeous.
Catrina Skepper: Look at this Happy Baby. These are the sort of things that they really love, because they can start to see color and likewise, very early on. And it's incredibly tactile thing. I remember with my first baby, when I handed her a book, and I thought, well, she is going to just think it's another plastic toy, but not at all. They're riveted by the fact that they can turn pages and see different images and pictures of other babies are perhaps the best thing for them.
Rosemary Clarke: Babies are fascinated by babies, they're very sociable animals and when they see a baby, they recognize themselves. They do, they're fascinated by babies.
Catrina Skepper: What about our own voice? Reading to a baby that can't even sit up, should we feel a bit silly or should we be encouraged to do that?
Rosemary Clarke: Well, far from being your worst critic, your baby is your biggest fan and they will just adore to sit and spend special time with you, while you share stories, songs and rhymes is just the most wonderful thing for them.
So, I would say never be silly and don't just leave it with you. I think were saying to me before that, older brothers and sisters have a part to play too, because they can really enjoy sharing books with babies and of course, dads and granddads and nuns and everyone.
Catrina Skepper: And also sometimes it's not just a bed time thing. I always think, if you're a new mother and you've got a baby and you're breastfeeding or feeding, sometimes we tend to try and do too many things at once. We are on the telephone always and I will say to my friends, take that time that you're feeding the baby and read a book out loud or whatever, because you'll find that the baby relaxes. I mean, or have music, classical music on in the background or something. But it's really a form of kind of relaxation.
Rosemary Clarke: Absolutely! And of course, I think it's lovely to have bedtime stories, but we shouldn't save books for them, because you have books that have different tempos, so if you're reading really exciting book, you don't want to that at bedtime.
Catrina Skepper: Not a scary book. That's another thing. There are lots of books about dinosaurs and things for children, which I don't really like to have, just before they go to bed. Because their imagination is spurred by them. So, you have to kind of cater, choose your book for the day.
Well Bookstart itself, it was obviously a national kit. Is it really available or do people have to ask for it? Do you have to know about it, in order to receive your special pack?
Rosemary Clarke: You should receive these from your health visitor. When you receive, is generally between seven and nine, but not always. So, you should ask your health visitor about your Bookstart pack because there is a Bookstart pack for you.
Catrina Skepper: If your child is around twelve months and you didn't get one, what can you do about it? Can you claim it?
Rosemary Clarke: Go and ask your health visitor. Go and say I missed out on getting my Bookstart pack and I'd really like to have one. I'm sure that will be fine. We want everybody to have, we're not trying to put barriers in the way. We want everybody to enjoy. We want you marching up down to the library with your bag on your shoulder filled with new books that you've just borrowed.
Catrina Skepper: But what about slightly older babies? Is there anything in place for them, because obviously you want to encourage as on going thing with pre-schoolers.
Rosemary Clarke: As an on going relationship. What we want to do is, we're just at the very beginning of the roll out program. So, over the next twelve months, you will start to see Bookstart Plus which is for toddlers. And Bookstart Plus is the next step, next natural step along from Bookstart for babies. And then we're also going to start to see My Bookstart Treasure Chest, which is very exciting and that's for three-year-olds. So, children of three who are in play schools or nurseries.
Catrina Skepper: So, do you get a huge treasure chest for the books?
Rosemary Clarke: It's like a wonderful, special, tyros treasure chest and it has a false bottom in it, which says Top Secret, where you can hide your best pictures underneath.
Catrina Skepper: Still free.
Rosemary Clarke: This is still free. And these gifts are worth a tremendous amount of money. I mean, they genuinely are -- just the books alone are worth a lot of money. But the whole package is worth considerable amount of money. But we're able to do it and we're able to do for every child because of the partnership that we have.
Catrina Skepper: Between the booksellers and obviously the funding that you get.
Rosemary Clarke: Yes and the publishers.
Catrina Skepper: Am I right, I think you have private sponsorship as well, companies sponsorship?
Rosemary Clarke: Well, the company sponsorship is from our Publishers, and they support us by providing our books at a very, very tiny cost or for free.
Catrina Skepper: Do you have volunteers filling these packs? How is that done?
Rosemary Clarke: That's an enormous thing. It's way beyond the scope of volunteers, I'm afraid. Because as we roll out of the national program, across the whole of the UK, what we'll eventually be doing is, distributing 21 million items a year, because each single item, counts as a component.
And so it's way, way, way beyond the capacity of willing volunteers, I'm afraid. So, it's a very big operation. But it's tremendously exciting and we have lots of countries now across the whole world. I mean, we have Bookstart in Japan, which follows our model and Korea and Thailand, Bookstart in Australia, New Zealand. So, many different places.
Catrina Skepper: Do nurseries know about this? Are they informed about it?
Rosemary Clarke: They are just beginning to know about it now, because obviously our nurseries and our play schools will be the avenue that people will be able to use that channel in order to get the Bookstart Treasure Chest, so that's going to be how we will access parents then.
Catrina Skepper: Can just say, purely, obviously on an education -- from an educational standpoint, it's the love of books that you're trying to encourage the love of reading.
Rosemary Clarke: Most definitely!
Catrina Skepper: But is there, I don't want to say this, but is there any commercial reason for doing this as well? Are you finding that, are the booksellers finding that there is an increase in book appreciation and book selling. Because I don't think that really ever stops, once it starts. But if you're not somebody who is bought up with books, you might miss out.
Rosemary Clarke: We know that there are whole ranges of people who don't think about buying books, who don't think that books for them and because Bookstart packs will go into every home and in the land that has a new baby, hopefully that's going to engage a whole new audience of book buying public.
It certainly won't happen overnight, but the indications are very, very good. And what we will find in Bookstart Plus, which is for toddlers and for the Treasure Chest for three-year-olds, is that the booksellers have bound it together and they have decided to put £1 book voucher in each of those packs. And the message there is, we want you to have more than two books. Come along and buy books, because it's lovely to borrow books, but it's lovely to own them too.
Catrina Skepper: One thing I would also say from my personal experience, I've got a five-year-old and a just turned two. And the five-year-old revisits books. So, don't think that once this is sort of past it, so by date, because your baby is 18-months-old. In a way, I mean, other than, if you have got another family to pass them on to, keep them, because children up to the age of five, six, seven revisit books that they love and they remember their favorites. And that one special book they had when they were just a tiny baby, often they remember.
Rosemary Clarke: That's very true. And it will carry on way, way, way past when the five and six-years-old because grow up children still remember the books that they loved when they were tiny. And they almost become family albums. They almost do.
Catrina Skepper: Especially if they scribble in them.
Rosemary Clarke: Well, it's a special memory. And the book list that you find in there as well, because we have recommended books, that we really think are nice. At the back of that it says, who am I? When did I join the library? What are my favorite books? And then it says who reads to me? And you have to write your name down, and so, I think as a memento of your earliest experience with books, it's a nice to keep thing.
Catrina Skepper: We should just perhaps add Parents don't panic, this is not the written word, it's not telling you that your child should be able to read by the time they go to school or anything like that. It's just purely about enjoying.
Rosemary Clarke: It's absolutely about pleasure. It's not about the text at all. Not about the text at all. It's about giving the enjoyment of books. And it's about listening to your voice, as you said before, that is so important.
It's just about for pleasure and the enjoyment because that gives the familiarity, that gives the confidence. And then children, when they do come to formally learn how to read, they will start that like ducks to water, because it will be familiar environment to them. They'll have had rich experience of stories and songs and rhymes and that really does stand you in good stead. So, it's all about pleasure and it's all about enjoyment.
Catrina Skepper: Well, thank you for coming and telling us about this scheme. I think it's one of the most fantastic schemes, I think, this country has to offer.
Rosemary Clarke: I agree.
Catrina Skepper: Thank you very much.
Rosemary Clarke: My pleasure!
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