RE: LEADING CHILDREN’S AUTHORS JOIN CAMPAIGN TO GET CHILDREN READING
The ‘Where Do Words Take YOU?’ campaign is supported by a number of well-known children’s authors including:
Laurence Anholt
Malorie Blackman
Ben Brooks
Michelle Harrison
Clara Vulliamy
Harriet Whitehorn
To celebrate our 10th birthday, children’s reading charity, Doorstep Library has today launched a campaign to get children reading and talking about books. Doorstep Library, which aims to instil a love of reading and books in children living in disadvantaged areas of London, has now launched the campaign: Where Do Words Take YOU? The campaign is supported by a number of children’s authors, and other well-known names, who have all shared their own reading journeys. To see a full list of campaign supporters and read their journeys with words please visit here.
The campaign encourages children, and adults alike, to share the wonderful journeys that reading and books take them on, using the phrase: Words take me … There is a special Online Postcard featured on the Doorstep Library website that families can fill in to share their reading journeys. The completed postcards will be showcased on the #WhereDoWordsTakeYOU? campaign page as well as the Doorstep Library social media channels. The campaign will run throughout the summer, encouraging children to read during the summer holidays, a time when we know children’s reading often experiences a dip. With children already behind because of the pandemic, reading for pleasure has never been more important. We hope that everyone will join in by sharing the wonderful journeys that words and stories take them on.
Doorstep Library CEO, Katie Bareham said: “The pandemic has been hugely detrimental to children’s development, massively increasing inequality in educational attainment. To help bridge that gap we are encouraging children to read this summer.
We know how beneficial reading for pleasure is for young people, supporting their mental health and wellbeing and increasing their opportunities in life. Reading opens doors of all sorts – from the author’s journey you take when you read a book to the personal journey you take in your life. To help us celebrate our 10th Birthday we want to encourage not just the children we support, but children and adults everywhere, to pick up a book and shout about the amazing journeys that words take them on when they read.”
Award-winning author of the ‘Seriously Silly Stories’ series, Laurence Anholt said: “I am delighted to support Doorstep Library’s ‘Where Do Words Take YOU?’ campaign. Reading is the foundation of every child’s development – it is the place where all of life’s journeys begin. Reading opens doors in the present and in the future. There is a book out there waiting for everyone. All you need to do is open the cover and step inside. Where will you go this summer?”
For a full list of campaign supporters please see: Friends of Doorstep Library
Download the press release: Leading children’s authors join campaign to get children reading
