Under the partnership with the American country music singer, and charity Make My Day Better, parents in Lambeth can register their new-born to five-years-old children at imaginationlibrary.com and get one book a month through their letterbox.
The success of the scheme, which is promoted across the borough, was marked this week at Ethelred Children’s Centre in Kennington, one of Lambeth’s network of successful Better Start children’s centres.
Cllr Ben Kind, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families was joined a special Storytime session run by Imagination Library on Wednesday morning alongside children and their parents.
The Storytime session was led by Imagination Library author Selina Brown, reading her picture book ‘My Rice Is Best’ which is part of the selection for 2026, published by Penguin Random House.
Cllr Kind said: “It was brilliant to join the parents and their children to see first-hand how this scheme is helping our youngest residents develop a love for reading at such a crucial time in their development.
“Parents in Lambeth have fed back to us how excited their children have been to receive their books, how much they have enjoyed their first reading experience, and how the programme has helped them create a family bonding experience.”
Lambeth’s Better Start Children’s Centres, which support families with children that are under five-years-old in Lambeth, have been key in getting families signed up to the reading project as well as providing a huge range of other community services.
Those services include maternity care, baby clinics, breastfeeding and infant feeding, early childhood development, parenting and other family help services. For more information visit lambeth.gov.uk.
The reading programme supports the Lambeth 2030: Our Future, Our Lambeth borough plan and its ambition to make Lambeth the best place to grow up by recognising the huge importance of giving children the best possible start in life.
