About Bookstart

Bookstart is a national programme that encourages parents and carers to enjoy books with children from as early an age as possible.

Bookstart gives the gift of free books to children twice in their early life, along with guidance materials for parents and carers.

• Visit the Bookstart website for more information

Never Too Young For A Book

Sharing books, looking at pictures, singing rhymes and playing cuddling games is a wonderful way to build a strong relationship with your child. It will help with the development of good language and listening skills, prepare your child for learning to read and give them a good preparation for starting school.

Borrow a book from your library – they have Board Books which are strong and easy to hold; nursery rhyme collections so you can sing with your child; and picture books which have few words and lots of beautiful illustrations for you to talk about. Babies can join the library from the day they are born and there are no charges to pay if a child under 5 damages a book.

There are so many different types of book available. Some books are exciting, funny and noisy and great to share with other children. A favourite book can have a calming effect on a small child, making it ideal to carry with you, ready to use in a waiting room, on a bus or in a queue. Sharing books at bed time is a gentle way to soothe a baby to sleep.

Sharing books about new situations which may be worrying to a child, such as a visit to the hospital or the arrival of a new baby in the family, can be reassuring and help to overcome their fears. Our ‘When a Book Might Help’ pages will give you some suggestions for books to use.

Rhymetimes

Fun and FREE Rhymetimes are organised in many libraries around the county. They aim to encourage parents and carers to share action songs and rhymes with babies from birth onwards. Toddlertimes and Storytimes are also available for slightly older children.

• Find a baby rhymetime

Bookstart for Babies

The first free Bookstart pack is for babies aged 0 – 12 months. The pack consists of a canvas bag containing two board books, a nursery rhyme place mat and leaflets for parents and carers about sharing books with babies.

The Bookstart Baby packs are gifted by Health Visitors, usually at a health check or home visit  Different health visiting teams gift at different times during the child’s first year, so please talk to your Health Visitor to find out when you will receive your baby’s pack.

My Bookstart Treasure Chest

The second free pack is the Bookstart Treasure Chest. It is a treasure box with a secret compartment and contains two picture books, drawing materials, a book of rhymes and guidance materials for parents and carers.

In Hampshire the Treasure Chest is gifted to all children entering Year R by their infant / primary school. This may be different to the gifting practice in neighbouring authorities. Parents of Home Educated children can email the Bookstart Co-ordinator bookstart@hants.gov.uk to obtain the pack for their child.

Booktouch, Bookshine and Dual Language

Bookshine and Booktouch packs are available for children who have visual or hearing impairment in addition to the standard Bookstart packs and are available either for children aged 0 - 2 or 2 - 4 years.

To help families who do not use English as their first language, Bookstart produce books and guidance materials in 25 languages.

For more information about any of these services, please email bookstart@hants.gov.uk or telephone Hantsdirect on 0845 6035631.

Bookstart News

How unfair it seems that, just as the children return to school after a fairly dismal summer, the met office are forecasting a heat wave. What do we think the chances are of a warm half-term break?

Circus Stars

Congratulations to all the children who took part in this year’s summer reading challenge. It has been one of our most successful summers ever, with nearly 26,000 children signing up to take part in Circus Stars. Of those more than 2,000 children joined the library for the first time, just so they could join in the fun (although they may have wished they hadn’t when they sampled one particular ‘scratch and sniff’ sticker!).

Many of our libraries were decorated with the circus in mind (and so were some of the staff and volunteers) and there were lots of special circus themed events during the summer. Some libraries ran a Bookstart Book Crawl alongside the summer reading scheme so that little brothers and sisters also had the chance to collect stickers and a certificate and join in with all the fun.

Thank You

. . . to everyone who took part in the scheme, to their families for encouraging (and often transporting) them, to the schools who helped to promote the event and especially to all the library staff and our wonderful army of volunteers who worked so hard to make the summer special. You’ve all been brilliant!

Changes to Library Charges

On 19 September changes were made to the various charges made by Hampshire Libraries. There are a number of changes, and full details can be found on the library website.

Families with children will particularly notice the change. Charges for the late return of children’s books have been reintroduced at a rate of 5p per day to a maximum of 40p per item.

The reasons for re-introducing charges on children’s loans are two-fold. It is partly because of the current financial situation, but the primary reason is to encourage people to return their books and thus ensure that as many books as possible are available for families to borrow.

To avoid paying fines on your family’s library books, make sure you renew them before the due date. Renewals can be made at your local library, by phone on 08456 035631 or 01329 225391 and online – you will need a pin number for each library card in order to access the library account. If you don’t have one you can ask at your local library or request one on-line. Does the library have your email address? If so, we can even send you an email to remind you that your books are due for renewal. You can update your telephone and email details in branch, by phone or on-line (tick the box to say we can send you library notices via email).

When A Book Might Help

Life can sometimes be a bit tricky and present us with problems we don’t quite know how to handle. It can be even harder for children to understand what is happening and difficult for parents to find the right words to explain. That’s when a book might help.

Every Hampshire library has a folder, either in the children’s section or at the enquiry desk, with a list of topics and some suggested reading for young people facing those situations. Every book detailed is available from Hampshire Libraries, although not every branch, so it may be necessary to place a request for an individual title.

Finding and requesting books from the library with young children in tow can be quite stressful, so this valuable tool is also available online for you to use at home or at work.

Children’s Book Week

Children’s Book Week is an annual celebration of ‘reading for pleasure’ organised by Booktrust and aimed at children of primary school age. This year the event takes place from 3–9 October.

If you would like to know more, Booktrust have set up web pages with lots of information, including a Best Book Guide and resources you can download.

• About Children's Book Week

Bookstart+ Packs

We have just finished distributing the last boxes of Bookstart+ packs to Hampshire libraries, so if you have a child aged 18-30 months there is still time to collect a free bag of books for them. I feel like I’m writing and ‘end of season sale’ advertisement, but it must be said:

Collect a Bookstart+ pack from your library today – when they’re gone . . . they’re gone!

Although we are waving goodbye to Bookstart+, the Bookstart Baby and Bookstart Treasure packs will continue as a universally gifted offering, supported by Booktouch, Bookshine and dual language materials. If you have questions about any of the packs and supporting materials available from Bookstart in Hampshire, please get in touch with Kim, our Bookstart Co-ordinator.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the staff in all our libraries, the library delivery drivers, Hampshire Courier Service, SfYC and lots of other people for all the enthusiastic help and support they have given to make sure this pack got to as many children as possible. Since 1 April 2005 you have helped gift more than 63,300 packs. What a fabulous achievement!