With things finally starting to feel a bit more spring-like outside and Earth Day being celebrated on 22nd April, this month we are sharing a selection of Brilliant Beanstalk books which we hope will help children understand the importance of protecting our planet and some of the issues faced by climate change. Sharing books on this theme with children can be a really useful way of finding out what they might already know about this topic, see what interests them and hopefully empower them to make positive choices when thinking about how their own actions might affect the future of our planet ..read more

Coram Beanstalk, The Alligator's Mouth Book Shop and The Bright Agency are offering schools the opportunity to win a set of the ten books longlisted for The Alligator’s Mouth Award 2024, which champions both authors and illustrators of highly illustrated children’s fiction. Now in its sixth year, the children’s book prize created by The Alligator’s Mouth children’s bookshop and The Bright Agency, celebrates the best books for 6-8-year-olds. To nominate a UK-based school to win a set of these ten longlisted books for their school library, just complete the short entry form before midnight ..read more

Reading Leaders is our secondary school programme where we train older students to work one-to-one with younger pupils within their school. We equip them with the skills and confidence to support the younger student’s reading skills, confidence and self-esteem. Since September 2023 our training team has delivered over 40 courses in secondary schools across the country and we have been delighted with the feedback from both the students and the school staff. And we've just had news of a glowing mention from Ofsted!  Melanie Wilson from Corpus Christi Catholic High School in Lancashire recen ..read more

Our friends at Parrot Street Book Club generously give us a 50p donation for every book they ship to their subscribers. Here, Emily Bright and Sarah Campbell, founders of the book subscription service for children, have written about the 6 ways in which graphic novels can encourage reading for pleasure! There’s been a huge rise in the popularity and visibility of graphic novels for children in recent years. We’ve always believed that graphic novels are a seriously underrated format, particularly for more traditionally reluctant readers, so couldn’t be happier about this change! There is a view ..read more

There are lots of ways for your business to support Coram Beanstalk and we guarantee to make things fun and easy for your company and employees. Corporate partner We have a number of corporate partners who have committed to supporting Coram Beanstalk over a number of years in a variety of ways, creating mutually beneficial, long-lasting, impactful partnerships. These partnerships are tailor made to suit the needs and objectives of your company, whilst supporting Coram Beanstalk to deliver our long term aim of supporting 20,000 children per year by 2021. Charity of the year Your company can hel ..read more

We are proud to partner with a variety of companies, delivering clear business benefits for them, and to help their staff raise funds to support children with their literacy. Supporting Coram Beanstalk will provide numerous benefits to your company and we guarantee to make things fun and easy for your company and employees. Get involved with your community Link to a children’s charity who work with over 1,200 schools across England Build deeper networks with your audience by providing direct support to the communities your company operates in Support a charity committed to improving socia ..read more

A new Books Together programme has been developed to support parents of young children to read together regularly and encourage them to embed storytelling into their routine, through a series of informative and interactive sessions within Coram Family and Childcare's Parent Champions programme. The project will be co-delivered by Coram Beanstalk, drawing on our shared expertise as members of the Coram family, and supported by the Mercers’ Company as trustee of the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington. Books Together aims to reach families with young children aged two to five ..read more

Children need to be able to see themselves and their lives in the books they read to feel connected. And it’s equally important for them to read books that widen their understanding of the lives of others too. To celebrate International Women’s Day this year we have selected a range of Beanstalk Brilliant books which feature fearless female characters or real-life heroines past and present. Each of these books showcase different stories of girls and women who have demonstrated bravery, courage, inventiveness and creativity when faced with adversity and challenges. About the book Peanut Jones a ..read more

Reading shouldn't just be reserved for bedtime Lots of children’s books are designed to be soothing and calming and prepare your child for sleep – which is exactly what you want at bedtime. Your child is tired and grumpy, you’re ready for winding down, energy sapped from a busy day. But what about all those wonderful books just crying out for silly voices and actions or those books that offer the opportunity for really good discussion or debate? You don’t want to get your child all excited at bedtime by a hilarious performance of 'Oi Frog', nor do you want to stimulate lots of discussion from ..read more

Embrace reading the same books (over and over again!) Books are not single use. And for younger children in particular, reading a favourite book over and over again gives them a powerful advantage in learning how language works. When you try and convince them to choose a different book as you’ve had ‘Eric! The Hero’ every day for the past three weeks, you think you you’re acting in your child’s best interests – trust me, you’re not. The only person to benefit from insisting on a new title, is you (and your sanity!) As your child sees it, reading is about enjoying a story they love, snuggled up ..read more