BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, has announced the new books it aims to give to all children born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as part of a newly revitalised Bookstart Baby bag.  

In England, health visitors or another early years health professional should gift this yellow bag in a baby's first year to help share stories, rhymes and songs and to inspire people to start reading with their babies as early as possible. For many children, it provides the first books they will own.

One of the two new books to be included in the Bookstart Baby bag is Tummy Time! from Mama Makes Books, 'a black and white fold-out board book designed to ensure babies get their daily tummy time, critical for their sensory, motor and visual development.'

The second title, Space Baby: Zoom to the Moon, illustrated by Kat Uno and published by Hachette Children’s Books, offers children and families "a striking multisensory experience with bold visuals and simple sound-prompting text that is perfectly suited to encourage interaction with curious babies." 

According to BookTrust: "Families receive two engaging and age-appropriate books selected by an independent panel of experts, finger puppets and a fun information sheet that explains to families the benefits of sharing stories and rhymes with their babies. The contents all come in a handy and bright tote bag and are funded by Arts Council England in England, the Welsh Government in Wales and Department of Education in Northern Ireland.

"With a new strategy that is focused on supporting children from disadvantaged families to enjoy reading from the earliest opportunity, BookTrust has been listening to families who have received Bookstart Baby and the early years practitioners who support them, to understand what drives families to share books with babies in the first 12 months of life.

"The new books and revitalised bag and contents have been informed by this insight - designed to appeal to families from different backgrounds and circumstances, to inspire them to celebrate the joy of sharing stories with their babies as early as possible."

Jill Coleman, director of Children’s Books at BookTrust, said: "Reading together with children can have profound benefits affecting their health, wellbeing, sleep and social development. At BookTrust we believe that all children should be able to reap these life changing benefits and our new strategy is focused on finding innovative ways to ensure children from disadvantaged families are not left behind. Sharing stories with babies in their first year is a crucial step on that journey. Young babies will enjoy the bonding time that comes when families sit and read, share stories or rhyme together and these latest books are expertly placed to support families to create an engaging, multisensory and fun experience that we hope will kickstart a lifelong love of books and reading."