Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read #TimetoRead

I’ve been an avid bookworm for as long as I can remember.  I just can’t imagine a world without books playing a dominant role.  It’s a passion that I’ve been trying to pass on to my son since he was a baby.  He’s always been surrounded by books and I’ve read to him since he was a few weeks old.  You’ll all know that he’s a bit of a reluctant reader, he’s much happier to let me do the work so I have to get creative to try and spark his interest.  We’ve been bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read and it might just have done the trick.

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

Research shows that children who enjoy reading do better at school and BookTrust believe that family time spent reading together is very important, as do I.  Their Time to Read campaign highlights the fact that by sharing picture books with children from an early age really does help children become independent thinkers in the years to come.

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read this year will see every Reception aged child in England received a copy of Little Monkey by Marta Altes.  700,000 children will receive their very own book parcel and we’ve had a sneaky peak at Little Monkey and the other books within the book bundle and they are lovely.  The BookTrust website also has more information to help families make the most of storytime with book lists, tips and fun downloadable activities like making banana bread and paper plate monkeys!

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

My son and I always love story time, even now that he’s 8 years old.  Curling up together on the sofa or bed, just the two of us and a good book, it’s long been our favourite way to end the day.  It’s a time for adventures and imagination to run free, a time for questions and concentration.  A time to just be together and enjoy the story at hand.

I’ve always been really keen to bring school topics to life for my son by visiting places that relate to whatever he’s been learning, whether that be to the woods to look at trees and leaves, or to Hampton Court Palace when he was learning about the Tudors. We also do this with books and we’ve been bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read by visiting the Severn Valley Railway.  My son is mad about steam engines and we’re slowly working our way around the Heritage Railways of the country.  On one such visit I discovered the Peter’s Railway series of books, written by Christopher Vine.  I knew instantly that the books would be a great way to encourage my son to read more.

We’ve read a few of the smaller picture story books before and I recently bought him the original hardback book of Peter’s Railway itself which tells the story of how the railway came to be built as well as having information on old railway stories and how it works pages.  A trip on a steam train seemed like the ideal way to encourage my son to read the book himself whilst learning more about the engines he loves.

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

The story tells us who Peter and his Grandpa built their own miniature railway so they could visit each other easily.  Peter learns about how railway lines are surveyed and constructed and then learns about how the steam engine itself works.  Whether it’s a full size engine or a 10th scale model, the process is the same.

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

My son was happily reading Peter’s Railway to us as we sat aboard the first steam train ride of the day.  As well as enjoying steam train rides for the rest of the day, I knew we could visit the Engine House Visitor Centre at Highley to bring elements of the book alive too.

In the story Peter and his Grandpa are shown how all the different levers on the locomotive work as well as the pressure and water gauges.  The book is beautifully illustrated and has lots of factual diagrams too, making it a perfect book for my son to enjoy. Whilst there wasn’t an opportunity to stand on the footplate on one of the running locos, my son could have a look at one of the exhibits up close to really bring the story to life.

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

I’d also forgotten, but there’s a Peter’s Railway Educational Area there too, so we got to enjoy looking around there, watching the video of the miniature railway the book series is based and putting theory into practice.

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read really worked for us as we enjoyed showing my son that he could mix his passion for steam engines with reading too.  I’ll be adding to our Peter’s Railway collection over the coming months and hope to keep the momentum going as we continue his reading journey.

Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read

Of course, if you follow the blog already you won’t be at all surprised to read that as soon as we got home from our steam train adventure, my living room was full of trains, tracks and a Lego built station.  Inspiring imagination, that for me, is what reading is all about.  Don’t you agree?

I’ve got some exciting news to share too regarding the BookTrust Time to Read campaign.  Join @BookTrust and me @Minnowmep for a Twitter Party on Thursday 20th September 2018 from 8-9pm using #TimetoRead to take part.  There will be 5 x £20 book tokens to win during the party! We will be discussing what we love about reading with our children, from babies right through to sharing books with children who are of reading age. Let’s share our favourite books, best books for dealing with difficult topics, and explore how we love to bring stories to life for our children.

How do you enjoying bringing books to life with your children?

disclosure:  we have been compensated for our tickets and provided with funds for refreshments in exchange for this post.  My comments always remain my own honest opinions.


As well as the chance to win 1 of 5 £20 book vouchers in the Twitter party I’ve mentioned above.  I’ve also teamed up with BookTrust to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a Time to Read book bundle of their own worth £20 including Little Monkey by Marta Altes.  Complete the Gleam form below for your chance to win.  Good luck!

Terms and conditions:

(Please note that all entries will be checked against comments for validation).

Only the first step of this form is mandatory, all other steps are optional. Only one entry per person is allowed.

This giveaway is for UK residents only.

Once a winner is randomly picked, I will check if the winner has done what was requested and I will contact them, if they do not reply within one week, the prize will be allocated to another person.  The winner’s details will be sent to Rock and Roll Babyworld PR for BookTrust , in order that they can arrange delivery.

The giveaway will close on 14th October 2018 at midnight.

Don’t forget to visit my Giveaways page for more great prizes on offer!

BookTrust Time to Read book bundle worth £20

181 thoughts on “Bringing books to life with BookTrust Time to Read #TimetoRead

  1. Julia Donaldson’s Room On A Broom – My daughter loves this story because all the animals become friends and the story rhymes making it easy to narrate.

  2. Me and my daughter love ‘The monkey with the bright blue bum’. She finds it hilarious every single time we read it

  3. Anything by Roald Dahl would be a winner. He’s funny, tells a great story that gets a kid’s imagination going and he doesn’t dumb things down
    Debbie

  4. we are enjoying the Mr men Series at the moment, we like it for the fun characters and amusing stories

  5. We love the Gruffalo but my eldest grandsons at eight and nine are ready to move on now so we may try some Horrid Henry Stories!

  6. Miffy books – colourful bright simple – no matter how many times we read them we never tire of them

  7. We love Julia Donaldson’s books – the current favourite is The Ugly Five. They are such lovely books to enjoy together and the rhythm of the poetry makes them easy books to memorise,

  8. Stick man. I just love the story, the adventures he goes on and the fact he wants to be back with his family,

  9. My favourite story to read is Hairy Maclairy! I have lots of fond memories of the series of books from my childhood!

  10. My son has really started to take an interest in being reas to lately which is wonderful. My favourites are the fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen

  11. We still love the Julia Donaldson books for the big two, and I always liked Hairy Mclary books to read, just love the language used 🙂 Littlest fella is obsessed with Dear Zoo. I will be devastated when he outgrows all my faves!

  12. This sounds like a brilliant campaign, and I reckon your son will get there in the end. If he enjoys stories, then I bet he’ll seek them out for himself when the time comes. Sounds like a fantastic book – kids love trains, don’t they?

  13. My little girl Heidi and I love reading our Beatrix Potter collection of books, especially the Peter Rabbit one, it is super exciting when Peter almost gets caught in Mr Macgregor’s garden.

  14. At the moment we are enjoying reading Peter Pan together, I think its important to encourage them to read classic stories

  15. Our favourite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear – it was my favourite as a child too so lovely to pass it on to my son!

  16. I love to read The Faraway Tree as I have fond memories of my mum reading it to me and my brother when we were little. I like it as it’s so magical and enraptures the innocence of children.

  17. Peace at Last by Jill Murphy, all of the boys have loved this book so we can recite this book without the prop of the actual book!

  18. I love to read The Tale of Peter Rabbit to my granddaughter as I remember reading it to my children, and having it read to me when I was young.

  19. My little boy likes it when I read ‘We’re all going on a bear hunt’, he likes to sing it as we go!

  20. Harry Potter books, they are great stories and you can do a better job of acting than the kids in the actual films

  21. I had a book as a child that I would read continuously, it isn’t a well known book but my daughter now loves it and its so nice to be able to read it again with her – Ivy Cottage, biscuit, buttons and pickles by E J Taylor

  22. We have 7 children and i absolutely love to read with them/listen to them, my older children love the magic of the Roald Dahl books and my younger children love The classic Disney stories (who doesn’t!)

  23. Anything from The Cat In The Hat, I used to love reading it as a child and now I love reading it with my little girl x

  24. The Lion and the Little red bird is a beautiful story and wonderfully illustrated, but my son always picks made about dinosaurs/Mini beasts etc

  25. We love the WHat the Ladybird Head series by Julia donaldson, my daughter adores spotting the ladybird on each page!

  26. First off the plank that entered and just wrote Sarah for their name.. That’s me! Haha.
    An old favourite is the jumblebum beast, but right now we’re delving into the world of Harry potter together and it’s magical.

  27. We always enjoy the ladybird heard. I do lots of different voices when I read it, which my little one loves!

  28. The BFG I read as it is very captive and reminds me of when I had this read to me in my childhood too. Thankyou for the competition x

  29. Room on the broom because they know all the words and love acting out the different characters. Its a firm fave.

  30. Charlie and the chocolate factory, my mum read it to me, lovely to share it with my children now and see them as enthralled as I was.

  31. My favorite to read to my girls is ‘the hungry caterpillar’ it’s so nostalgic to read it to them and they love it!

  32. I read loads of different books but one in peticular they love is the mouse and the big red apple they adore it x

  33. I love reading Charlie chick to my little girl as she can get involved by lifting the flaps to see what us behind. Thank you for the chance c

  34. We love reading the gruffalo 🙂 I think it’s a brilliant story and teaches children a lovely lesson x

  35. My daughter loves Winnie the witch books and We are going on a bear hunt. My fave was always Charlie and the Chocolate factory

  36. An old favourite of mine was ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’ and also Matilda by Roald Dahl.

  37. The Tickle Book. Its entertaining to read and my son loves it because he gets to join in with lifting the pull up flaps. We both laugh when the tickle monster appears

  38. My daughter loves the fairytale hairdresser books. They are a lovely modern twist on the classic fairytale stories.

  39. my favorite book of all time that i read to my grand daughter and read to my children as they were growing up is Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney i never ever tire of this book and its my eldest daughters favorite and now my 3 year old grand daughters favorite fab giveaway thanks for the chance

  40. Owl Babies is my girls favourite from when they were tiny. Its about 3 babies who dont know where their mother is and they go through lots of emotions wondering.

  41. My daughter absolutely loves I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. She loves it as it is genuinely laugh out loud funny!

  42. I love reading The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. All those lovely rhymes and images are great to read aloud!

  43. Guess How Much I Love You because I read it from the day I knew he was in my tummy and still do now he’s almost one

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