Puffin and NLT Partner to Give 25,000 Books to Schools

Puffin Books, part of the Penguin Random House family that prints books vfor children is to give away 25,000 books to fifty primary schools in the UK as part of a new partnership with the National Literacy Trust.

The “Puffin World of Stories” project will reach more than 13,000 children in some of the most needed areas of the UK. Three districts have been chosen for the project and they are Middlesbrough and South Shields, Essex, and South London.

The project is designed to promote reading for pleasure and will provide books, along with training and resources for schools to help reinvigorate libraries and reading spaces. Each of the chosen schools will receive five hundred free Puffin books, bookmarks and posters, and National Literacy Trust membership and training, ensuring each book and each pupil is put to their maximum potential.

With library funding constantly cut and schools struggling under the current UK administration it’s fantastic to see publishers picking up the mantel and continuing to ensure children get access to good literature. While this project only covers some areas of the UK, they are considered to be areas in need. Middlesbrough and South Shields were chosen because Puffin have been working with Penguin Random House in the North East. Rural Essex was chosen because rural areas are one of the key concerns for reading ability with these areas often under-resourced. South London has shown in statistics to have significant literary challenges. All the chosen schools have a high percentage of children who receive free school meals and the relationship between literary and social background is strong in the UK.

The books will be selected from a list of two hundred Puffin titles with a mix of writers including Jacqueline Wilson, along with new authors they may not have heard of. It’s also hoped that Puffin will be able to organise author visits to schools to increase children’s interest in literature further.

Puffin World of Stories will run through the 2018/19 academic year and NLT will monitor its progress through the year.