St Helens Library Service is partnering with BookTrust and Baby Week Cheshire and Merseyside to reach more families and bring new story adventures to life for families! The NHS Improving Me partnership and Women’s Health and Maternity programme firmly believe reading with and to children supports key brain development in the early years. The importance of family reading for children cannot be underestimated. Reading for pleasure can benefits children educationally and socially and simultaneously boosts cognitive development, wellbeing, and mental health. As a result, more children develop the skills, language and resilience needed in school and beyond to thrive.

BookTrust Storytime celebrates six brilliant books that are great for sharing with young children aged 0-5 years old. There is a story and activity for every family to enjoy either in the library or at home, from a hilarious tale about whales on a bus to a rabbit that always says no!   

As well as having these books available for loan, Parr Library and St Helens Library are also running free activities including storytime sessions, crafts and activities related to the books - there are even characters that you can collect each time you return to the library.

This event will also run at the same time each subsequent Friday.

The six books will also be shared at weekly Read & Rhyme Time across all libraries. 

For more information about BookTrust Storytimes or your nearest Read & RhymeTime, please pop into your local library, follow St Helens Library Service on social media or visit the library pages.