Boost for prison reading project takes more dads and children into a world of gruffaloes, moles and giraffes

Lewes Prison, Spurgeons Children’s Charity, Lewes Children’s Book Group, Bags of Books, and East Sussex County Council have joined forces so that the StoryBook Dads programme can reach more fathers and their children.

Further funding has been provided by Lewes Children’s Book Group for books at the Spurgeons Visitor Centre and the Bags of Books bookshop has offered discounted titles to help the funding stretch further.

The programme has been run by the HMP Lewes library for nine years so that dads at the prison can record stories for their children to listen to at home.

Each child is also given a copy of the book so that they can read along to the recording.

Sam Hart, Spurgeons family service manager at HMP Lewes, said: “We’re really excited by this new partnership with Lewes Children’s Book Group and Bags of Books which is helping to spread the love of reading and sharing books amongst dads and their children, despite the prison bars.

“This is so important to the children’s education, their emotional wellbeing, and to maintain family ties.”

Author Julia Donaldson has proved the programme’s most popular author with her books The Gruffalo and The Highway Rat being favourites in the programme.

Stories by locally based Guy Parker Rees, illustrator of best-selling picture books such as Giraffes Can’t Dance, are also in demand and he has worked with some of the dads at HMP Lewes.

The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew it Was None of His Business by Werner Holzwarth is another favourite.

More information about StoryBook Dads can be found at https://www.storybookdads.org.uk.