SEASIDE SUMMER SPECTACULAR PLANNED IN UK

Booktrust is pleased to announce details for National Bookstart Day 2010, which will be held this year on Friday 11 June. 

The theme of this year’s National Bookstart Day is At the Seaside, to celebrate the new summer date for the annual celebration of Bookstart.

Over 500,000 free booklets of a unique poem and seaside illustrations by the author Tony Mitton and illustrator Alex Ayliffe, will be produced in celebration of Bookstart, which gives free books to every child in the UK. Posters, stickers and Bookstart At the Seaside postcards will also be distributed to support National Bookstart Day activities.

Thousands of families across the country will be invited to take part in a host of events in bookshops, libraries and a range of venues, to highlight the fun of sharing books. These will include rhyme sessions, appearances from the Bookstart Bear, seaside rhyme themed adventures as well as song and story telling sessions.

For the first time, to help celebrate this year’s National Bookstart Day’s theme, a special Bookstart beach bus will be bringing the seaside to the town to a selection of cities across England.

Rosemary Clarke, Director of Bookgifting at Booktrust:

“We are delighted that this year National Bookstart Day will be taking place in June. A love of books is one of the most important gifts that can be given to a child and it is never too early to start. We hope that this year’s At the Seaside theme will encourage families to enjoy sharing books and rhymes together right through the summer, indoors and out.”