Pearson launches Booktime with Hairy Maclary
Booktime is Pearson’s UK community program, set up in partnership with independent charity Booktrust.
Booktime aims to promote the pleasure of books and encourage parents and carers to read aloud with their children. Following a successful pilot early in the year, Booktime delivered 250,000 book packs to children starting school in 2006. The Booktime pack contained a free Puffin book, Hairy Maclary’s Bone, whose author generously waived all royalties in support of the programme, together with a booklet for parents and caregivers on the value of shared reading. This includes a foreword by best-selling author and Children’s Laureate Jacqueline Wilson and is illustrated by well-known children’s illustrator Tony Ross.
In its first year, Booktime book packs have been delivered with the help of local authorities, libraries and schools to around a third of the UK, with a goal of reaching one million children across the UK within three years.
Pearson staff have the opportunity to be part of this program, offering support to primary pupils in local schools in regions which include central London, Harlow in Essex, and Warwickshire.
Marjorie Scardino, Chief Executive of Pearson, says: “As the world’s largest education company and publisher, we want children to learn to read in a way that makes them want to carry on reading all their lives. But we know that many children don’t have sufficient access to books, let alone the privilege of owning them. We hope this will help teachers and parents kickstart a love of reading, which has to be one of the best starts you can give a child in life.”
One enthusiastic father said of the program pilot: ‘I think it is a fantastic idea. Our daughter…loved listening to the book being read to her and was beginning to read pages herself.’ Similarly, teachers and librarians felt it supported their work in encouraging parents and caregivers to enjoy sharing the pleasure of reading with their children.
