Booktime 2013 Titles Announced - our super-secret mission earlier this year!

Happy reading books! It's Booktime!

The hush of secrecy has at last been lifted. Earlier this year we talked about a top secret mission we undertook, something booky and really interesting to take part in and be involved in. A huge honour!

We're now able to tell you what it was all about, and it's very exciting news indeed.

The Booktime 2013-2014 titles have been officially announced and they are:

"But Excuse Me, That is My Book" by Lauren Child (Charlie and Lola) - Published by Puffin

"Tom's Mad Mop" by Celia Warren and Bill Ledger (Bug Club Series) - Published by Pearson UK

730,000 children aged 4-5 in England and Wales will each receive a free Booktime book pack in their first year of primary school. With two free books in every pack, along with additional copies for teachers and librarians, 1.5 million books in total will be given through Booktime, which aims to inspire a lifelong love of reading by encouraging families to have fun reading together.

The selection panel included teachers, librarians and us and the selection process was pretty tricky, so many great books were included this year and it was an extremely tough job to choose between them.

You can see our review of "But Excuse Me, That Is My Book" by clicking the link. It's a glorious celebration of libraries and books, and several changes - driven by feedback from the panel - have now been included in the book (a busier library, yay!) Charlie and Lola are a massive hit with Charlotte, and she loves trips to the libraries so the book was a brilliant choice.

"Tom's Mad Mop" is also brilliant, an early reader book that fizzes with energy and excitement and with a little sunshine slowly creeping out from behind the clouds, the perfect book to celebrate watery antics in the garden this summer. We can't wait to get out there and do exactly that!

We really hope you enjoy the books, we really enjoyed being involved in the process and are right behind Bookstart and Booktime all the way.

Here's a pic from the super secret selection process!

The lovely Booktrust 2013 Selection Panel. Many biscuits were consumed, particularly by that fellah in the middle!