Bookstart Around the World 1
Bookstart Around the World the national level, wh
ich also takes care of the related logistics. Apart from working with communications and national solidarity for Lesestart, offering practitioners training and introduction for the programme is also an important aspect. The same will also be done for librarians. There is also a platform to giving inspiration and encouraging best practice for local practitioners. Apart from promoting reading amongst families and other interested parties who work with children, the reading foundation also raises awareness on the national level for the importance of reading. In 2011, the ‘Lesestart: Three Milestones’ bookgifting programme was initiated in Germany, which continued until 2019. Following an evaluation, the programme was revised and continued under the name ‘Lesestart 123’. The most significant difference was that the intervals between books being gifted became shorter and schools no longer distributed the free books. There are two Lesestart programmes in Germany. One of these is a universal bookgifting programme, and the other is a targeted programme aimed at families seeking asylum. 3.6.1 Model In the Lesestart 123 bookgifting programme, books are given by paediatricians and libraries. Children receive free books every year until the age of three. The first two gifts are given by paediatricians during medical checkups, and the third by libraries. The programme is universal and is directed to all children within the area the programme is active in (about half of all children were reached between 2011 and 2019 (Ehmig, 2020; EU Read, 2019b). The main aim is to reach families that are in need of extra support, so regions where such families are overrepresented are prioritised. The targeted ‘Reading is our Future – The Lesestart for Refugee Children Reading Programme’ is aimed at child refugees aged 1–6. In Germany, those waiting for a decision on a residence permit live in refugee centres. It is common for such centres to provide educational care and preschool, with a person employed especially to work with children and their families. These practitioners distribute targeted gifts of books to families as part of the programme. The books contain mostly pictures, but also have some words in German. Apart from promoting language development in general, this is also intended to be an introduction to the German language (Interview; Lesestart für Flüchtlingskinder, 2020). In Germany, about 95 percent of all children are reached via early medical checkups by the child healthcare services, so almost all children can be reached. Furthermore, families tend to have a high level of confidence in child healthcare services, which makes the programme quite rigorous within child healthcare. Libraries, however, can differ somewhat with regards to how they work to distribute the free books. One difficulty for libraries has also been encouraging families to go and collect their gifted books. 3.6.2 Research and evaluation The German Reading Foundation has a department for research in reading and media, which regularly studies the reading habits of the population. These studies are conducted cumulatively, based on the programme’s existing challenges. For example, the latest study focused on families who read with their children, so as to gain insights into how interventions can reach these families. The evaluation of Lesestart 123 was carried out by an external party,6 and was aimed at both professionals and parents. It was designed such that surveys were to be conducted with participants as well as control groups of all target groups. A methodological problem highlighted by this evaluation is that those who are not comfortable with reading and parents who do not speak German were underrepresented amongst parents who responded. 6. The evaluation in its entirety is not available; instead, reference is made to Simone C Ehmig’s summary of the results and the interview. 18/52