Morrisons and the Open University launch Children’s Little Library
Link for Good brought together the Open University and Morrisons supermarket to deliver freely accessible children’s books nationwide.
A Children’s Little Library each of Morrison’s 497 stores nationwide. Books are donated before being distributed via community centres, local schools and in store through this simple exchange mechanism.
Children’s books, like children’s shoes, are quickly outgrown. As a children’s author and parent my shelves at home are groaning with children’s books. Some I could never part with, but most really ought to be shared, put to good use rather than gather dust on the shelf. This is what I found myself thinking a few years ago just before COVID put the brakes on the world as we know it.
Early access to books and literacy support changes lives, emotionally, educationally, psychologically, it even influences life expectancy. Research by the National Literacy Trust demonstrates correlation between literacy and life expectancy such that a child growing up in an area with significant literacy challenges has a life expectancy up to 11.6 years shorter than a child growing up just 2 miles away in an area where literacy rates are high.
The imbalance in the distribution of books in the UK is horrifying. Born to a family of teachers and writers, my children are surrounded with books, some theirs, some ours. It is only relatively recently that it has occurred to me the extent to which that will shape the story of their lives. It was an accident. But 380,000 children in the UK don’t own a single book and their story is shaped by the lack of books on their shelves.
The thought that 380 000 children and 760 000 parents have never had the shared experience of reading a bedtime story together is so very sad. The value of that experience is difficult to quantify. Whatever has happened in the day, whatever quarrels or tantrums, in those 10 minutes everything dissolves. It is you and your child in an imaginary world together. It is an extraordinarily trusting and safe space to be in, and that is the space in which your child drifts off to sleep. To think that there are so many parents and children who have never had that experience and who cannot understand the value of that experience; not just the educational value but the value to their relationship, to their sense of wellbeing and their sense of worth, is heart breaking. That time with a child sends a message – you are valued. Being valued counts for a lot.
Books play a vital role in children’s lives. An intervention that provides easy access to books and encourages children to read has tangible long-term benefits, improving life prospects.
Children born into families where there are no books and where parents do not seek access to books, arrive at school up to 18 months behind their peers. That gap is difficult to recover and often it grows. Children are born into a cycle – low literacy rates are both a symptom and a cause. I found myself considering ways to break that cycle. How could communities bridge the gap between those two homes to enable the transfer of books from one to another in a sustainable long-term initiative?
Community book exchanges have been around for years – on doorsteps, in out of use phoneboxes and pop up stores. But there was a need to a more consistent and accessible approach, a long-lasting approach that targets children and provides a steady stream of children’s books for those who most need them.
That is why it was vital to team up with a major supermarket chain. Morrisons provided the perfect setting – a community focused national supermarket. Working with their existing community networks Morrisons was able to provide both a location for donation of books and a mechanism for redistribution overseen by their community champions.
The support of the Open University provides a network for evaluation of the impact of this initiative as well as the educational network to support it, improving the prospects for the long term health of this ongoing programme.
There is now a Children’s Little Library in every one of the 497 Morrison’s stores around the UK. Anyone can donate their loved children’s books to any Morrisons, knowing that they will be put to good use in their own community.
I visited my Morrisons 5 days after the Little Library launched. The box had already been emptied twice and it was pretty full again. There was just enough space to add the books from my shelves.
When a child who has never had a book is offered one, they are offered more than just a book. They are offered a bedtime story, a better story, a better relationship, a better life.
Here are some of the comments from Morrisons customers.
“What an excellent initiative, well done Morrisons.” - Lindsay Johnson
“Thank you so much [Morrisons] for all the wonderful donations we have received as a school recently.” - Natalie Grace