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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Julia Donaldson’s Room On A Broom – love all the rhyming and repetitive phrases and the characters are all funny too! I never get sick of reading this book and my kids love it!
Me and my daughter love ‘The monkey with the bright blue bum’. She finds it hilarious every single time we read it
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
Topsy and Tim go on holiday as the kids enjoy reading and talking about their holidays
Julia Donaldson’s Room On A Broom ITS FAB
The Boy who hunted bugs, by Maria Kavendish. The illustrations are beautiful.
Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddluph. It’s a fantastic story about not fitting in.
I love reading Mog by Judith Kerr, to both my children, as I loved it so much when I was a child.
famous five go off to camp as i was in the scouts in the 1970s
My children love Snow White, the nice bits and the scary bits!!
we are enjoying the Mr men Series at the moment, we like it for the fun characters and amusing stories
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!
The Gruffalo because it’s a great story with lovely illustrations.
Miffy books – colourful bright simple – no matter how many times we read them we never tire of them
My son loves the very hungry caterpillar x
The gruffalo it’s so well written
The Very Hungry Caterpillar as the children know all the words off by heart so we almost sing it together.
My little grandson loves The Goodnight Train
The Dinosaur that Pooped a Planet, my daughter finds it hilarious
loved alfies new red boots x
My grandson loves We’re going on a bear hunt because he can join in.
at the monent we are reading spot the dog books, i loved them when i was a kid x
I like to read Monkey Puzzle as it’s a fun story and so easy for them to join in
I love to read the Snail and the Whale with my niece. Lots of rhyming, nice pictures, and an enjoyable story for us both!
The monkey with the bright blue bum is a story both me and my kids love with lots of laughter throughout:)
The gruffalo but they make me do it in funny accents everytime. they never stop laughing at it
I love reading with my kids. That’s such a great bundle – tag and remind me when the party starts! 🙂
Will do Jenny, it’s a lovely prize
I always love reading three little pigs because we can do a lot of action
It’s a good one isn’t it
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,
I love to share a book with my boy, it becomes increasingly difficult as he gets older but there is always time to get wrapped up in Harry Potter books as they are magical
Anything by Roald Dahl because it’s entertaining for the kids and for me!
The Gruffalo is always popular!
My boys love their bedtime stories too – their current favourites are The Day the Crayons Quit, and The Day the Crayons Came Home 🙂
great choices
classics aren’t they
Stick man. I just love the story, the adventures he goes on and the fact he wants to be back with his family,
My favourite story to read is Hairy Maclairy! I have lots of fond memories of the series of books from my childhood!
Oh wow what an amazing way to bring a book to life, I really love this and need to think how I can do this with a book for my children.
Thank you
I definitely think that reading with your children is important.
Isn’t it just
What a wonderful post! I think reading is so important and I have so many memories of much loved books from when I was a child xx
Thank you, so important
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
Oh yes they are fab aren’t they
Paul used to read to the kids over the phone when he lived away – so important to keep the bond going x
That’s such a lovely idea
Oh Mary this was so lovely – I just knew it would be a train based book and adventure x
It had to be really didn’t it
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!
Oh Dear Zoo! We loved that book
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?
Thank you, I hope so.
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.
All of the Tom Gates books, my boys love them
I love reading my daughter’s favourites – princess fairy tales usually – with her because she gets so invested!
We used to love The Golden Compass, these would go to my Niece and Nephew
We love The Gruffalo as it always entertIns the kiddies
Hoot owl master of disguise – it is so funny story, me and my kids love it!
Kids love reading roald Dahl books always makes them smile
At the moment we are enjoying reading Peter Pan together, I think its important to encourage them to read classic stories
Our favourite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear – it was my favourite as a child too so lovely to pass it on to my son!
Flat Stanley because it makes them laugh 🙂
We loved Room On A Broom – the illustrations are so funny x
We love reading together, reading a page each always helps motivate and making fun expressions as you read keeps them interested!
I’m reading the hobbit to my 6 year old x
anything roald dahl related we love them
we love stick man in our house at the minute! the kids love the voices i make for the different characters!!
i love reading snow white
My favourite is Guess How Much I Love You. The last line always puts a lump in my throat.
My daughter loves Borris which is a hand puppet book – she loves to have that read to her every night
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.
Room on the Broom. My daughter loves this film.
I like anything by Roald Dahl as they take me back to being a kid myself
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!
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory because it’s a really good book.
Any Roald Dahl book because they are great stories that we love
guess how much i love you, lovely story x
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.
I love reading Hairy McClary books as they are just fun but they are growing out of them far too quick for me!
My little boy likes it when I read ‘We’re all going on a bear hunt’, he likes to sing it as we go!
Anything Roald Dahl or classic fairytales, have a very old fairytale book that has been passed down
We enjoy Hairy Maclairy and snail and the whale. I think it’s the rhyming and the pictures they love.
We love to read Charlie and the chocolate factory because it’s always fun
Harry Potter books, they are great stories and you can do a better job of acting than the kids in the actual films
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
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!)
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
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
We love the WHat the Ladybird Head series by Julia donaldson, my daughter adores spotting the ladybird on each page!
My little 1 loves STICK MAN
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson …she’s getting a lot of shout outs in the comments isn’t she? x
Anything by Dr Seuss, The Cat in The Hat in particular.
Anything by Roald Dahl
They love the 10 little series, pirates, princesses, superheroes
I love to read Room on the Broom
Love reading anything with dinosaurs in
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.
Chicken Licken was a firm favourite with all of the children….
My daughter loves me reading Shark in the Dark to her!
My daughter and I have just started the harry potter books and we love how scary they are
I love rhyming books so particularly love Julia Donaldson’s books, especially The Gruffalo
My favourite picture book was The Tale of Georgie Grub. I managed to find a second-hand copy and now it’s a big favourite in our house.
What the ladybird heard books are fantastic at minute and I honestly don’t get bored of those
The Alfie collection of stories
We always enjoy the ladybird heard. I do lots of different voices when I read it, which my little one loves!
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
Room on the broom because they know all the words and love acting out the different characters. Its a firm fave.
We love to read anything by Julia Donaldson x
Room On The Broom by Julia Donaldson
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.
Charlie and the chocolate factory
My favorite to read to my girls is ‘the hungry caterpillar’ it’s so nostalgic to read it to them and they love it!
Suzies Shoes, Ellie loves to dress up as we are reading the story
Captain Underpants books as they have us all in stitches
We love to read a squash and a squeeze because the little ones love the animals!
I read loads of different books but one in peticular they love is the mouse and the big red apple they adore it x
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
I love to read The Gruffalo, a lovely story and the way Julia Donalson rhymes her stories is fantastic.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, we never tire of it 🙂
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as we find it fun to read.
We love reading the gruffalo 🙂 I think it’s a brilliant story and teaches children a lovely lesson x
Any books about Thomas the Tank, grandsons favourite
We enjoy reading The trouble with Daisy books they are so funny
I love reading the how to train your dragons books – because I love doing the voices!
The Gruffalo, it’s a classic and loved by all.
My daughter is loving a book called a kitten called moonlight
My daughter loves Winnie the witch books and We are going on a bear hunt. My fave was always Charlie and the Chocolate factory
My son loves The Gruffalo & all the David Walliams books 🙂
I love reading david walliams books with my kid they are hilarious
An old favourite of mine was ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark’ and also Matilda by Roald Dahl.
Wow said the owl, my kids absolutely love it
The gruffalo as me and my kids think its very funny
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
I’ve been reading the magic faraway tree 🙂
The Gruffalo, they love it 🙂
The Jolly Postman, because it’s fun to open up and read all the letters:)
My children love Stickman
I love the book the day the crayons quit it’s so colourful and well written x
The Cat in the Hat books, really good for helping kids to read and they find them great fun
I love The Snail and the Whale – it’s such a beautiful book!
we love the BFG
we love the diary of a wimpy kid books
Any of the Roald Dahl books but my favourites are always The Twits and Matilda.
The gruffalo as they seem to love it.
We love Winnie The Pooh because he was a bear of very little brain
Their favourite stories are from the Gruffalo series, so it tends to be that.
Whatever Next – it makes them think creatively about pretend play
I prefer to tell traditional stories as the are still the best.
The Gruffalo she loves doing the actions and doing different voices
We love the mister men books at the moment, my daughter loves them and thinks they are funny.
JK Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
We love The Gruffalo as it’s such a great story with fun characters.
We love Julia Donaldson’s Stick Man
My daughter loves the fairytale hairdresser books. They are a lovely modern twist on the classic fairytale stories.
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
I love reading the jolly postman I loved it as a child and opening the letters is so exciting
I like to Peace at last as it was one of my favs as a kid and my kids love it too
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.
I love reading The Selfish Crocodile with our sons. They love the characters and read along with me
my granddaughter loves reading the little Miss books, she finds them funny
My daughter Sheriah has always loved this storybook called not now Bernard
Currently the Roar book with my 18month old, he loves the animal sounds
we love the hungry caterpillar
My daughter absolutely loves I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. She loves it as it is genuinely laugh out loud funny!
I love reading The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson. All those lovely rhymes and images are great to read aloud!
The gruffulo x
I love reading Harry Potter to my son and share in the magic that hooked me as a child.
The Beatrix Potter books as they are classics and lovely stories.
We never tire of Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson.
Me and my children love reading A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson. We love books x
‘My Love Will Find You, Where ever You Are’ by Nancy Tilman. It is a beautiful book and the words so emotive and perfect for bedtime.
The very noisy house, love doing all the different noises for my children
I love reading the highway rat book with my son, we love the lead character.
My son loves were going on a bear hunt
The Large Family books have my granddaughters in stitches, lovely stories about a family of elephants
cat in the hat a childhood favorite
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