The National Literacy Trust is encouraging us all to start the year off right by raising money! The independent charity is asking book clubs up and down the country to get together in order to raise money and help to change a child’s story. 

By fundraising £200, a book club would be able to help children reading at home by covering the cost of supporting eight parents with low literacy skills. Raising £200 could also cover the cost of giving 60 children their very first books. The National Literacy Trust is challenging all book clubs to raise £200 before the 1st March 2019. Any book club who manages this will be entered into a draw for the chance to win a visit from a bestselling author: Adele Parks, Dorothy Koomson or Milly Johnson. There will also be an opportunity for book clubs to win a wine-tasting event. 

Adele Parks released I Invited Her In in September (a LoveReading Book of the Month) and has been the author of 17 Sunday Times bestsellers, with more than 3 million copies of her books sold in the UK. Adele Parks is also in the top 1% of most-borrowed library authors. 

The award-winning Dorothy Koomson is the author of 14 novels. These titles include My Best Friend’s Girl, The Ice Cream Girls, and The Brighton Mermaid. Koomson’s books When I was Invisible and That Girl From Nowhere were Books of the Month on LoveReading when they were first released.

Milly Johnson is the award-winning author of a range of feel-good fiction and has 15 bestselling novels to her name with more than two million sales worldwide. Milly Johnson’s debut The Yorkshire Pudding Club was a Debut of the Month and described by our Editorial Experts as “a lovely, astute, uplifting read”. All of her books have been featured on the LoveReading site since. 

The book clubs who take part are encouraged to raise money with a cake sale (or a second-hand book sale!), running a sweepstake, collection donations, hosting a pub quiz or even having a period of introducing fines for not reading the book. 

Materials for fundraising including a guide, posters, downloadable bunting and collection boxes can be found on the National Literacy Trust website. These resources can be accessed by registering your book club with a simple form.