Books for Family Days in Prisons

We've had more lovely feedback passed on to us by Prison Reading Groups--thank you for that. It's so nice that we reproduce it here:

The [books] were delivered the day before our family day, just in time. In the end as we had 2 adult ed tutors who had delivered the Hungry Caterpillar we set aside a quiet area and put the books on low tables surrounded by soft chairs and allowed the children in their own time to "find" this area. When a child showed an interest then either a parent or tutor went over to assist with reading if necessary.
When the child had looked at several books they were allowed to choose a book to take home and at that point they were given the book bag, notepad and if appropriate, pencil and pen.
When [the facilitator] spoke to the families the feedback was ... fulsome and they expressed absolute delight and amazement that any one would give their child a book bag with a choice of book too.
The facilitator added that [she] was delighted to have been given the opportunity to see the children choose books and sit and read them when there were so many other activities available. As some-one who has been involved in education from community-university it strengthens my belief that books are still the most important avenue through which young children can acquire information, develop interests, learn the art of reading for pleasure a pursuit which can be done with others or on your own.
Many thanks for the books.
And many thanks to all who generously support Give a Book for making this possible.

Family Days with Bags of Books

Give a Book has just started giving our gorgeous GAB BAGs to prisons for their Family Days. The bags contain books, pencils and pads for the visiting children. PRG have sent us this report:

The first Family Day at HMP Wandsworth was clearly a brilliant success and both books and bags were a triumph.
As it happens, one of the fathers who was there is also in the reading group and added his thanks in person. He said his own five-year-old was too excited to sit still but that there were lots who spent a long time sitting with their dads and reading together. And he thought having the book and the bag to take home would really help the children remember the day and the enjoyment of being together.

Here are some of the other comments received :-
"My daughter loved the book, it's one she'd read at school so she was very pleased"
"the gift [of a book] was a wonderful surprise"
"It was wonderful for my son to have something to remember the day by"

"the bag is great; I'll use it to take my art work home"
"my wife says my son is writing notes for me in the pad he received on the family day, thank-you"
"thank-you very much, my children loved it"
"the whole day was a fantastic opportunity to bond with my family, the bag of goodies was an added bonus"
"It was wonderful to sit and read the book to my daughter during the visit, it helped us to re-bond and helped us escape our environment for a while"
So thanks to PRG and HMP Wandsworth for sending this feedback which we love to get and thanks to everyone who helps Give a Book do what we love to do. Now please go back to Give a Book.