Frank Cottrell-Boyce launches inaugural Reading Rights report
Today, Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce releases his inaugural ‘Reading Rights’ Report with partner BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity.
The report calls on national and local leaders in early years, health, education and culture to come together to make reading a part of daily life for every child in the first seven years of life. The report also shares five focus areas that will turn the tide on what Cottrell-Boyce terms an ‘indefensible’ reading inequality.
Reading Rights Interim Report
The ‘Reading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future’ Interim Report calls on national and local leaders to make reading a part of daily life for every child in the first seven years of life.
The report puts forward a vision for early childhood reading and story-sharing across key areas for improvement – reading for the best start in life, reading in nurseries and schools, and reading for children with experience of social care.
It also identifies five specific points of focus where change will lead to real impact on the ground and on children’s lives and announces plans for an innovative place-based pilot called the ‘City of Stories’, with the aim of creating a reading blueprint.
Five Areas of Action
Five key areas of action have been identified for their potential to make tangible change: these will be the focus of BookTrust and Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s activity over the next twelve months. A second ‘Reading Rights’ Summit will be held in early 2026, followed by a second ‘Reading Rights’ Report in Summer 2026, detailing progress over the following target areas:
- Workforce training: Supporting all professionals and practitioners working with children and families in the early years to understand the benefits of early reading and to be confident sharing stories and showing parents and carers how to read with their children.
- Policy, guidance and frameworks: Making sure that early childhood reading shows up in policy, guidance and frameworks – wherever it can make a difference.
- Access to books: Making sure that children and families, early years professionals and practitioners, and community spaces, childcare settings and schools – all have access to high-quality books and reading-support resources, including books that are representative of the contemporary UK.
- Sharing high-quality research and evidence: Sharing the evidence base about reading in the early years with everyone involved in supporting children and families during this phase, in ways that are clear and meaningful and will drive change.
- Multi-agency leadership: Demonstrating the impact that early shared reading could make when effective practice is implemented in a coordinated manner by a wide range of local leaders across a community, city or wider area
Storytelling Species
Speaking of the report, Frank Cottrell-Boyce said:
“This report contains a stark warning. If we vacate that space – where child and story meet, where human love slows the world down and makes it a bit more navigable – we will hand it to something that is not human, that will not slow down, that does not love us. We will be ceding the territory of clam and connection to confusion, anxiety and fury. The mission is urgent. Childhood is fleeting. But the mission is also achievable. And it is full of joy.
I’m asking for government support on a local and national level to make sure this simple, vital experience is available to all. To help us remember who we really are – the storytelling species.”
BooksForTopics and Early Reading
BooksForTopics is supporting the #ReadingRights campaign to make early shared reading a universal experience and a regular part of life for every child.
Our Early Years booklists and resources are designed to support EYFS practitioners, school leaders and parents in sourcing books that encourage early reading. From our preschool booklist and Early Years storytime favourites to diverse and inclusive EYFS books and books about superheroes, our range of EYFS booklists is designed to highlight recommended books that appeal to young children, represent today’s society and enrich shared storytimes.
Promoting books and shared storytimes in the Early Years is critical, especially at a time when the latest research from BookTrust shows that 1 in 5 children aged 0-4 have a book read to them less than once a month. We renew our dedication to expanding our range of early years booklists and printable reading resources, to support practitioners in promoting books and stories for the youngest children.
At BooksForTopics, we stand with BookTrust and the Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce at the launch of the Reading Rights report, which aims to make early shared reading a universal experience and a regular part of life for every child. Childhood reading supports cognitive development, bonding and attachment, emotional wellbeing, school readiness and community connection. This vision needs change and action, and we’re pleased to be supporting the campaign.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub.
> Browse our Topic Booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
> View our Year Group booklists