I can honestly say that some of my favourite memories of my children being small are the times when we sat down to read a book together, or two or three. Most nights I had to put a cap on it at three or four in case I fell asleep whilst reading to them. Our eldest in particular was relentless and she progressed onto memorising the words and 'reading' to her younger sister pretty quickly. She's 19 now and I can safely say (whilst she spouts on about Marxist Criminology theories she's studying at Uni) that encouraging a love of reading was worth every minute. Stories make up every part of our lives. Our inner monologue, what we tell others and our memories. It's how we make sense of the world and it's certainly how children learn. And what's better than snuggling up to listen to Mum or Dad reading for a sense of safety and connection?

The recent world events have led to a whole bunch of people, in particular librarians, authors and teachers, reading books aloud online. I've been doing a few myself. It's just another way to enjoy books and I've seen how useful those videos are to teachers in particular. It's not a particularly new thing. Jackanory on the BBC has been running for 50 years! I certainly remember enjoying that show as a child. And Australia has it's Storytime with Playschool. Last year I had the absolute thrill of seeing Kate Richie reading out Eva's Imagination

So I've updated my portfolio page for children's books to include some of the story readings of my books. I think my favourite has to be Story time with Mr Skene. What an absolute gem he is.