National Bookstart Week 2013 is happening from the 24th-30th June, and the theme is Fairy Tales.

There are going to be thousands of free events for babies and toddlers up and down the country, as well as activities and resources at the Bookstart website. There will be copies of ‘The Ugly Duckling’ beautifully illustrated by Masumi Furukawa given away at all events courtesy of the publishers Child’s Play. An audio recording of the story, read by Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh will also be available on the website.

The Bookstart programme (which offers packs to babies and pre-schoolers) only has secure funding until 2015 – and it has been one of our favourite things to get for H. Research has shown that children who received the Bookstart packs are more likely to choose reading as one of their favourite activities, and parents were more likely to share stories more fully, reading the whole text and discussing the story afterwards. Children also performed better at school compared to those who had not had Bookstart packs.

To help celebrate we’re going to attempt to catch up with as many books as we can and write (or maybe even video) reviews of them – we love reading in our house – check the link above to see if there’s any events near you!