And I'm a great fan of libraries, but what is the difference between owning and borrowing?

So I think the first thing to say is we're working with children in 500 schools this year And the majority of those schools run food banks, and if they don't, then they're signposting their families to a local food bank.

And a lot of them have washing machines running throughout the school day to wash their children's school uniforms.

These are families who simply do not have the opportunity to go out and purchase books, even from a charity shop.

So those children are kind of left outside of feeling part of that community.

The, in the very first instance, having the chance to come along to a Children's Book Project book festival put on by their school and choose from like a wide selection of beautiful books, they're pre-loved, but they're beautiful, gives children the chance to select something for themselves.

And that has a significant impact on their self-esteem.

You get the family that suddenly thinks, "Yeah, I've got a child here who clearly likes reading." How do you then translate that into books being part of their life? Do you track the families? Do you stay with them, or is it just impossible to do that?

Does it have to be a hard copy book? Does it matter if it's a tablet that they're reading on?

So, um, reading fundamentally can bring us so much joy, can expose us to new worlds.

It can teach us kind of skills of empathy.

So yes, it's important.

The schools shoulder the burden of teaching children to read, but there's so much more that we can do around the edges to help children experience the joy of losing themselves in words and pictures.

But it doesn't need to be a physical book.

National Year of Reading is encouraging children to read on all platforms, to read comics, listen to audiobooks, um, but also to be able to own your own book, to lose it down the side of the bed, find it again, see it, you know, as something that you might return to and have read to you night after night, I think is a fundamental part of identifying as a reader.

And, you know, we know that children imitate adults.