World Book Day! Children's Book Recommendations from the Brightsparks Team

Today (4th March) is World Book Day! World Book Day aims to change lives through a love of books and shared reading; to ensure that all children can experience the life-changing power of books. Research shows that reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.

Reading has never been more important, and despite lockdown, World Book Day will continue to work with schools and nurseries to distribute their £1 book tokens. They are working with teachers and nursery leaders to provide the printed token (for those children still in a school/nursery setting) and a new single-use digital version, that can be printed at home or shown to booksellers on a phone or tablet screen.

World Book Day has also made a number of children’s audiobooks available for free on their website. There is a range of titles available for children of all ages. There are picture books, including “Hugless Douglas” by David Melling, young fiction books, such as “Hotel Flamingo” by Alex Milway, and Fiction for older children such as “Running On The Roof Of The World” by Jess Butterworth.  A number of free online events are also taking place, visit the World Book Day website for more information.

We know that many of the families who take part in our Brightsparks training programmes hugely enjoy reading, so we asked our Brightsparks team for a list of their favourite books to read with their own children. Here are a few of our favourites:

0-5 Years

The Tiger Who Came to Tea- Judith Kerr
Each Peach Pear Plum- Allan Ahlberg
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt- Michael Rosen

6-8 Years

Mister Magnolia- Quentin Blake
Clarice Bean, That’s Me- Lauren Child

9-11 Years

Private Peaceful- Michael Morpurgo
Matilda- Roald Dahl
Once- Morris Gleitzman
The Story of Tract Beaker- Jacqueline Wilson