Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2024-2026, will host The Reading Rights Summit in Liverpool today, calling on Kier Starmer’s government to “stand up and give a visible sign that this country values its children.”
The call from the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony writer and frequent Michael Winterbottom collaborator forms part of his campaign to address the “invisible privilege and inequality” within children’s books and reading.
Cottrell-Boyce said: “Working with BookTrust in these first six months of my Laureateship I’ve visited lots of early years settings and seen astonishingly brilliant practice. I understand now – more than ever – just how urgent it is that we re-reset the conversation about reading. To use a government phrase: ‘de-silo reading’.
“Yes, it’s important for educational attainment. Yes, DCMS, it’s the most crucial – and most democratic – part of our cultural heritage. Shared reading is an effective, economic health intervention, so yes, it’s essential, Wes Streeting, to mental health, to bonding, to attachment, to creating a situation where parents and carers can give the best, the most joyous start in life to our children.”
The Reading Rights Summit, which is organised in partnership with the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, BookTrust, which also manages the Laureateship, forms a key part of Cottrell-Boyce’s ‘eading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future campaign, which he launched on appointment as Children’s Laureate in July 2024.
Cottrell-Boyce aims to address ‘invisible privilege and inequality’ within books and reading, so that every child – from their earliest years – has access to the transformative ways in which they improve long-term life chances.
The day-long summit – the first of its kind led by a Children’s Laureate – will bring together high-profile, expert voices in the political, education, literacy, early years, arts and health sectors with a view to recommending an urgent course of action to policymakers that will help ensure that the ‘life-changing benefits of children’s reading are taken seriously’.
Among the other speakers at the event are Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region; former Children’s Laureates Cressida Cowell (2019-2022), best-selling author and illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon series and We’re going on a Bear Hunt scribe Michael Rosen (2007-2009), and Rachel De Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England.
Cottrell-Boyce added: “As Children’s Laureate, I’ve worked with BookTrust to create this summit – together, we are going to discuss, share, challenge and develop our expertise and experiences. Together, we will develop a report that will help ensure the transformative gift of reading is shared with every single child. Because this is so, so doable but the longer we wait to address invisible privilege and inequality, the worse this becomes – more and more children fall further behind.”