Campaign aims to encourage families to read again and will run until March 14 in all 172 stores.
On World Book Day, toy retailer The Entertainer has launched The Big Book Rehoming in partnership with The Salvation Army.
The campaign will run across all of The Entertainer’s 172 stores from Thursday March 5, aligning with World Book Day, the annual event which sees children across the world wearing fancy dress to celebrate their favourite storybook characters.
The Entertainer is calling on families to donate their unwanted children’s books, so they can be rehomed with underprivileged families. The National Literacy Trust found children from underprivileged homes who don’t own a book are six times less likely to read at their expected level.
The Big Book Rehoming aims to encourage all families to read more, after research commissioned by The Entertainer of 807 families across Britain found that, 1 in 5 (20%) families spend less than an hour a week reading with their children and 1 in 12 (8%) spent less than half an hour reading with their children.
In contrast, a third of families (30%), spend over 2 hours a week watching YouTube videos together, with 1 in 7 households quizzed spending more than four hours watching YouTube together each week.
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most, 14% of families said making YouTube content was the most important thing to do together and 8% of families said reading was the least important.
The research also found that 22% of families never visited a library.
“We are extremely pleased to launch The Big Book Rehoming in partnership with The Salvation Army,” said Gary Grant, founder and executive chairman of The Entertainer. “Reading is such an important part of childhood learning and development. Knowledge and education are fundamental building blocks for life and missing out on having books to read can take away the freedom and imagination reading can inspire.
“We’re proud to be helping to rehome books with children who need them whilst continuing to support the work of The Salvation Army.”
Kirk Bradley, head of corporate partnerships of The Salvation Army Trading Company, added: “After the success of The Big Toy Rehoming campaign we are delighted to partner with The Entertainer for The Big Book Rehoming.
“Donations from members of the public help The Salvation Army in continuing to provide practical and emotional support to vulnerable people in the UK. This is another vital campaign which benefits those who need it most and we are overjoyed to be taking part.”
