Acclaimed author backs Buster’s Book Club

Children’s author and illustrator Nick Butterworth says that reading with children at home - which is what Buster’s Book Club encourages parents to do - has benefits beyond improving their English: it’s a way for families to bond.

The scheme works by turning home reading into a competitive activity, with classes working together to be the best, and the deadline to sign up for 2018 is Saturday, December 16.

“Time spent reading with children promotes literacy in the most enjoyable way - the unconscious development of vocabulary, the easy learning of language skills and the infectious desire to read for themselves,” the 71-year-old said. “And every minute spent sharing in this way builds and reinforces family relationships.”

He added: "I’m delighted to see initiatives which further children’s literacy and in particular the sharing of books and stories, so it is very exciting for me to be involved with Buster's."

Buster’s Book Club encourages children and families to spend more time reading for pleasure at home by making it into a challenge: setting targets and offering rewards.

Each child is given a home reading target of a set number of minutes, and classes then compete with each other to see who can read the most. Children take part in a triple challenge: the weekly attempt to win the Reading Class of the Week trophy; the monthly inter-school competition, in which classes can win leisure attraction tickets and visits from storytellers; and the annual challenge, in which all the participating children aim to collectively read for more than a million minutes. If they achieve this, they earn the title of Reading Millionaires.

Mr Butterworth’s first children’s book, B B Blacksheep and Company, was published in 1981; since then his books have sold 12 million copies in 25 languages worldwide. He was a storyteller on the TV-AM children’s programme Rub-a-dub-tub in the 1980s, and Percy the Park Keeper was made into an animated TV series with Jim Broadbent voicing the title role.

To find out more, or to sign up, visit Buster's Book Club website

Contact Details

Charlotte Hayes
Telephone: 08442 640291
Email: chayes@thekmgroup.co.uk