Authors, including Sir Michael Morpurgo and Malorie Blackman, have written an open letter urging the government to invest in early years reading. This comes following a BookTrust survey suggesting that only half of children aged one to two from low-income families are read to daily. The letter notes that some families struggle to access books and support, adding that it is not right that children from poorer backgrounds are deprived of a life rich in reading.
Signed by every children’s laureate from the past 25 years, including current laureate Joseph Coelho, the letter says the UK’s cost-of-living crisis is “tipping more families into poverty”. The cost-of-living crisis is having an impact on access to books and support, according to the authors. Some 4.2 million children in the UK are now living in deprivation, according to official figures.
The letter forms part of a new Get Reading campaign from the BookTrust to support disadvantaged children in family reading. It follows a recent BookTrust survey of over 2,000 low-income families in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which found that less than half of children under seven are being read a bedtime story.
The younger that children are introduced to the power of stories, the better chance there is of putting them on an “extraordinary pathway of knowledge, understanding and empathy… to give [them] some idea of what’s out there,” says Sir Michael, adding that making books more readily available to children in homes and schools is vital as parents battle increasing cost-of-living pressures
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More