About us
Welcome! We are Little Greenwich Books, a new registered charity in south-east London set up to support local families with free baby, toddler and pre-school books.
Our mission is to help level up literacy, to engage children with books at an early age and to encourage a lifelong love of reading and creativity.
We work in the boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley as a small volunteer-led organisation. We’re incredibly passionate about supporting children and families facing difficult circumstances. Whether that’s financial hardship, the loss of a loved one or coping with an illness or injury, we want to help where we can with books.
We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to benefit from book ownership, giving them the best chance of doing well in school, work and life. Find out more about what we do.
Why does book ownership matter?
Many research studies have found that children who own books are more likely to enjoy reading. Those children are then more likely to read for pleasure and develop advanced language and literacy skills. Those skills can help them to do well at school and increase their earning potential as adults. Reading has also been linked to numerous health and wellbeing benefits, enabling children to thrive in all areas of their lives.
Up to 50% of children in disadvantaged areas start school without the language skills they need to progress (National Literacy Trust).
We want to encourage a love of books, stories and rhymes from the earliest possible age. To support parents in reading with their babies and young children, giving them the best possible foundation of communication, language and literacy skills before they start school.
The Covid-19 pandemic starkly highlighted literacy inequalities which have only been exacerbated by the current cost of living crisis. How can parents afford books for their children when they can barely afford the basics? We want to help.
Recent research and guidance reports
Children and young people’s book ownership in 2021: The impact of book gifting on children and young people’s reading engagement (National Literacy Trust, November 2021)
The home learning environment in 2021: Emerging insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on parents’ literacy practices at home (National Literacy Trust, November 2021 )
Preparing for Literacy: Improving communication, language and literacy in the early years (Education Endowment Foundation, June 2018)
Governance
Little Greenwich Books was established in December 2021 and is run by a management team of three women. We met through our young daughters and found so much joy in reading with them. We were inspired by all the incredible community projects organised during the Covid-19 pandemic and came up with an idea for one of our own.
Our trustees are Rebecca Sams, Katalin Sutton and Geeta Sharma. We’re a new organisation but if you have any questions about our governance, policies or procedures, please do contact us.
We take safeguarding extremely seriously. Read our safeguarding children policy statement for more information on how we ensure the books we distribute are age-appropriate and inclusive.
