In these times a positive connection and snuggle together with a book will be really positive. Here are some ideas and links to support families' love of books and sharing that love together.

Home reading and learning together

• Home learning with love my books – lots of ideas for fun, creative, reading activities at home
• Love my books Family review panel page – a chance to add to and read reviews form other families 
• Our Picture books pedagogic page with many more links and references

Hearing from authors and illustrators

• The wonderful thing about social media is that authors and illustrators can bring their books alive in new ways. Here are some links 
• Kid’s poems and stories with Michael Rosen Youtube channel
• Nick Sharatt’s Drawing tips and Nick Sharrat’s website

Authors reading and illustrators illustrating in real time

• Alex T. Smith on the World Book Day website How to be a story detective. Follow and look up Alex’s #StoryStarters on Twitter for daily inspiration for writing stories
• Oliver Jeffers Stay at home story time - reading one of his books every evening at 6pm GMT. You can find on his website or follow on Instagram Live
• Chris Haughton on his Facebook page reading stories daily at 5pm GMT
• Mac Barnett reading books on his Instagram account at Mac Barnett (click on his photo on his profile for the live videos, which are kept on for 24 hours)
• Rob Biddulph on Twitter sharing his illustrations with "draw-along videos" and using the #DrawWithRob hashtag: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10am. Also on Facebook and Instagram. 

Other useful links

• Shortlists for 2020 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals announced lots of great books listed here
• Anne Harding’s blog Reading news – latest research and articles
• Anne Harding’s Book reviews
• CBeebies storytime
• Power of Pictures Authors and illustrators has many short films of writers and illustrators to inspire children

There are so many authors doing online reading and activities at this time. The big list of children’s authors doing online readalouds and activities from the We Are Teachers (USA) website has a long list that could also be useful.

Many thanks to @rcharlesworth for finding and sharing some of these links on Twitter.

This list was collated by @earlyed_cathy March 2020