The Apprentice is crucial viewing in our house. Having grown up in sales roles, I was always told I should go on The Apprentice. I could never think of anything worse. I would never have dreamt that one day I’d be invited on as a Judge.

When The Apprentice launched in 2005, it wasn’t just another reality show. And that’s why we loved it. It felt like a televised job interview with real stakes and real ambition. A real opportunity albeit a terrifying boss at the head of the table: Alan Sugar. 

Two decades later, the show has evolved into something bigger. It’s part business competition, part comedy of errors. A part of British culture. We now watch it with our kids, both studying Business Studies at secondary school. And it’s as compelling a viewing as ever.

20 Years of The Apprentice

Of course the show changed over the 20 years of its existence but we are still huge fans, and I was overjoyed and slightly terrified when we got the call asking us to appear.

In the early years, it was serious stuff. A proper high-flying, well paid job with Alan Sugar. As Head of Amstrad I had once tried to get hold of him to sell advertising to him when I was working in classified sales at Conde Nast in the mid-90s. Blimey how I’m glad I never reached him on that call! In those days it was less like reality TV and more like a high-pressure assessment centre. Being fired wasn’t comedic; it was potentially career-ending.

Everything changed when the prize became a £250,000 investment - instead of a job. Contestants were no longer competing to work for Sugar, they were competing to become his business partner. Where bold players can win big.

The era of the one-liners came to pass. The ridiculous one-liners. We’ve heard them all. “I’m the James Bond of the business world”, “I’m a Doctor, with a high IQ, a high bench press and to top it off I’m easy on the eye”, “I’m going to create a legacy that will reverberate through time!”, “I’m like a shark, I don’t sleep” and of course “I’m not a one-in-a-million type of girl. I’m a once-in-a-lifetime woman.”

This shift transformed the tone of the show but The Apprentice survives and thrives because it balances two opposing forces. Genuine entrepreneurial ambition with spectacular unforgettable failure. Failures that have actually had my children rolling around on the floor over the years. Howling.

We tune in for both. Opportunity. And entertainment. Business lessons. And life lessons. It shows business success is possible yet all the while reminding us how easy it is to get it so terribly terribly wrong.

I am sure many of us have thought: I could have done better than that.

Episode 2 of Series 20 - The Children’s Book Challenge

So, this week's task: create a children’s book for 4-6 year olds, with audio and a character figurine. Having a front row seat and observing the candidates’ attempts at creating books for children was an eye opener. It was certainly entertaining - but it also revealed something profound: writing for children is one of the most misunderstood creative challenges. Our beloved children’s authors and illustrators are constantly underestimated. Undervalued. Although not by us. Obviously.

The LoveReading family of brands - LoveReading, LoveReading4Kids and LoveReading4Schools are cheerleaders of authors and illustrators everywhere. It’s our job to help families and schools across the nation find the right book for their children. The book that will help them fall in love with reading. The book that will transform them into a reader. Because reading matters and books change lives. And the power and potential of being a reader is everything.

Maybe the candidates understood that. Maybe they didn’t. The results certainly didn’t show that. Maybe they were set up to fail. It is bloody great TV after all.

Watching them try to engineer a children’s book in 48 hours exposes a truth we already know, and we think it’s worth highlighting here.

Children are emotionally intelligent readers

Kids are a discerning audience. Seeing those children's faces when they were shown the book, when they were read the story. Priceless. They spot insincerity instantly. The best children’s books trust their audience. They don’t patronise. They invite them in.

Simplicity is not the same as easy

Children’s books look effortless because they are engineered with extreme care. Created with love. Crafted with attention to every detail: the rhythm, repetition, pacing, page turns, visual storytelling. The characters. The message. The illustrations.

Children deserve respect

There’s a myth that children’s media should be softened or over-explained. Great children’s literature does the opposite. It respects curiosity. It leaves room for imagination.

Books shape identity earlier than we think

Children don’t just read for entertainment. They read to understand themselves. And eachother. The characters they meet help them rehearse for life. Experience and understand empathy, courage, fear, kindness, difference, friendship, loss. 

And, let's not forget that going to the lowest common denominator doesn't mean it's wrong.

Although it was perhaps a bit of a cliche that the boys' team chose to create a book about poo, kids do love a bit of potty humour. As I said to them (which didn't make the cut), my kids and my husband still get a kick out of toilet humour now. But it must be done well. And on that note, do check out our Brilliant Books About Poo for Kids Who Love Toilet Humour collection of book recommendations.

Why this matters now more than ever

Reading for pleasure is in crisis. Children are no longer choosing to read. Children's reading enjoyment has reached the lowest in 20 years according to the National Literacy Trust's 2025 research. The lowest levels since records began.  Over the past 20 years, the proportion of children who say they enjoy reading in their free time has fallen from a majority (2/3rds in 2005) to a minority (1/3rd in 2025). A decline serious enough that 2026 has been announced as a National Year of Reading.

That context makes The Apprentice challenge unintentionally poignant.

If we want children to read, we can’t treat books as gimmicks, merchandise or afterthoughts. The book has to be the event. The experience. The invitation.

They have to choose to read. Find the joy in being a reader. Not because they have to. But because they want to.

LoveReading4Kids is here to shine a light on that. To celebrate it, spotlight it, and champion the books that remind children how joyful reading can be. One of the ways we do this is through our Best Books for Kids Who… series, where each week we highlight a new hobby, passion or interest, and give lots of brilliant book recommendations right across the ages. Because helping children choose to read starts with meeting them where they already are. When a book connects with what they already love - football, animals, gaming, space, crafting, dinosaurs, music, fashion - reading stops feeling like homework and starts feeling like discovery. Like fun. 

In this the National Year of Reading let's work together to get our kids reading again. And even if The Apprentice candidates didn't create books for children we necessarily adored, it's all good to get the conversation going. To get people talking about books. And remembering how awesome they can be. And long may that continue.