I was not surprised to read about the number of children who don’t own books (Marcus Rashford: ‘Whenever I hear “no”, I ask myself: why not?’, 22 May). But the same thing shocked me when I was a health visitor for many years (I am now retired). Our local library, among many others, ran the Bookstart programme, which enabled health visitors and nurseries to distribute packs of books to all children at nine months, two years and three years. The nine-month pack of two board books came in a nifty tote bag, along with an invitation for the child to join the local library. I would often sit and show parents how to present books and read to their babies. The three-year pack was a “treasure box” of books, which we gave to infants after their pre-school booster injections to help them with any momentary distress.
Sadly, I believe that funding for some of these packs has been reduced by successive Tory governments, along with the much-valued Sure Start programme. I despair that child book poverty is no longer a government priority. Marcus Rashford has once again brought issues such as these to everybody’s attention.
Hilary Clarkson
Manfield, North Yorkshire
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