SNACKZILLA meets Emily & Sarah, Co-Founders of Parrot Street Book Club

World Book Day - Three words that result in many a parent frantically scouring the shops in search of a costume that their little one has begged to wear to school that year. But did you know that World Book day began in 1997, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading and celebrated in over 100 countries. Their mission is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. To celebrate WBD this year we sat down with Emily Bright & Sarah Campbell, the Co-founders of Parrot Street Book Club, a monthly book subscription for 5-12 year olds, to talk about the importance of kids reading, starting a business and get their top recommendations for the best new kids books.

How did you two meet?

 Emily: We go back a very long way – we went to secondary school together, so have known each other far longer than we didn’t know each other! We were housemates in our 20s and have now both settled with our families in New Malden, South-West London. We live a few streets apart and our kids go to the same school, so we usually see quite a bit of each other.

Tell us a bit about your business, when did you start it and what inspired you to set it up?

 Sarah: Parrot Street Book Club is a monthly book subscription for children aged 5 to 12. We’re both passionate about the power of books and the importance of nurturing a love of reading for the fun of it during childhood. Encouraging our own children to be keen readers is important to us both and we knew other parents felt the same way. And yet, there are so many more distractions for our 21st century kids than there were when we were growing up. We knew we’d have to work that bit harder to encourage the reading habit in our children and believed there was scope to offer a service which helps other parents do just that.

How did you come up with the name Parrot street?

Emily: That’s a question we’re often asked and goes to show that we met the brief we set ourselves – it’s memorable! We spent a lot of time coming up with ideas for a name that we thought would reflect our values and aspirations for the brand. We decided that a parrot would be just the right animal to represent our brand – they’re intelligent, inquisitive, talkative and colourful. They also fly high which was an idea we loved associating with our young subscribers. The street part came out of the desire to create a community of book lovers, children who would collectively engage and talk about books – just like you’d do with your friends and neighbours!

What’s your best tips for encouraging young children to read?

Sarah: Choosing to make books a central part of family life is a great place to start. Obviously enjoying books at bedtime is a lovely routine to get into but why stop there? Reading together during the day, popping a book in your bag for while you’re out and about and listening to audiobooks in the car on long journeys are a great way to build stories into your routines. Having a range of different types of reading material available – fiction, non-fiction, comics, magazines – can be invaluable for tempting more reluctant readers.

Emily: Also, making sure children see you reading is a fantastic way of reinforcing that books are important. As is talking about the books that you’ve all read.  

What are your top 5 books for children that you recommend?

Sarah: Oh my goodness, this is such a hard question to answer as there are so many wonderful books published for children every month. For 8-year-olds and up my current favourites are Darwin’s Dragons by Lindsay Galvin and A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll.

Emily: I’m currently reading the third instalment of the Adventures on Trains series by M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman to my three children (9, 7 and 4) and we’re all hooked. In terms of chapter books for newly emerging readers the Claude series by Alex T. Smith is a firm favourite. We also love graphic novels and Lightfall: The Girl and Galdurian by Tim Probert is fantastic.

 www.parrotstreet.com
Instagram & Twitter: @parrot_street
Facebook: Parrot Street Book Club