As a supporter of World Book Day, Ben Bradley MP is hoping that his constituents will take part in this year’s World Book Day on 4th March.

World Book Day helps to tackle book poverty and encourages all children to read for pleasure. This year organisers said it is more important than ever as Covid-19 has widened the economic and educational gap.

The campaign aims to encourage more children and families to read and celebrate the joy of books, particularly those from disadvantaged and low-income backgrounds. This involves changing behaviours, so more families are reading together for 10 minutes a day and transforming attitudes to reading.

Thanks to National Book Tokens, World Book Day, in partnership with schools all over the country, distribute more than 15 million £1 World Book Day book tokens to children and young people (that’s almost one for every child/young person under 18 in the UK and Ireland) every year on World Book Day.

The campaign is working with teachers and nursery leaders to provide the printed token (for those children still in a school/nursery setting) and a new single-use digital version, which can be printed at home or shown to booksellers on a phone or tablet screen. Families can redeem their £1 token in lockdown or hold on to it to use later.

Ben is keen to spread the word so as many families as possible know about the £1 World Book Day books and how children can get one for free with their £1 book token.

Go to https://booksellers.org.uk/wbd for information about retailers open near you and contact them for information about ways to redeem the token before you visit.

Ben said: “World Book Day is a fantastic chance for families to spend some time together. I’ll be taking part this year with my two boys, and I hope that other families across Mansfield and Warsop will also be getting involved!

“It’s so important that we do everything we can to encourage children to read. According to the National Literacy Trust, 383,755 children and young people don’t have a book of their own. We need to take action and World Book Day gives those children the opportunity to change their reading habits.

“There are so many ways to celebrate World Book Day this year and a massive range of books to pick from. I hope my constituents will take part in Show Your Shares on social media, so I can see how they’re celebrating the joy of reading together.”