Michael Morpurgo

Wonderful news that Michael Morpurgo has just been announced as the new president of Booktrust.
Christmas cheer indeed. 

Living the story

Michael Morpurgo has again written affectingly about the importance of reading time for children. In an wonderful article in The Times on Saturday 7th December he reminisces about his own childhood and being read to by his mother and grandmother and through them acquiring the love of stories. In his ideal world every child would have that special reading time both  at school and at home. And every child would have books of their own to love, cherish and return to for life. He lists 8 books that he'd love every child to have:
The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr; Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Victoria Lee Burton; The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling (which was his choice for our GAB Book of the Month back in August 2011); Charlotte's Web by E.B.White; The Iron Man by Ted Hughes; The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson; The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde; The Man who planted Trees by Jean Giono.
1 in 3 homes in the UK have no books at all. The single strongest indicator of future success in a child is whether or not there are books in the home. So why not Give a Book to someone who really needs one this Christmas?

Bring back story time

The former children's laureate, Michael Morpurgo, has called on the Government to reinstate story time in all schools, saying children need time in the day for reading and quiet contemplation. His words were reported in The Telegraph today and were spoken at the opening of the wonderful Brackenbury Primary School Library. At this school in West London a bunch of mums got together to raise money and build a superb new library where there had been none. Give a Book is delighted to have been able to help put books on their shelves in this excellent project and congratulate them on their achievement.