A book shop in Clevedon is hoping a record number of children will spend their World Book Day tokens in store this year.

North Somerset Times: Dr Alistair Sims and his partner Chloe Smirk at their new bookshop.Dr Alistair Sims and his partner Chloe Smirk at their new bookshop. (Image: Archant)

Books on the Hill is inviting children to visit the store in Hill Road to spend their tokens and share the stories with their families.

World Book Day is on March 1 this year and families can visit from Monday until March 25 to spend their tokens.

Owner Alistair Sims said: “At Books on the Hill we are keen supporters of World Book Day.

“What we are trying to do is to encourage more children and young people to read for pleasure.

“To do this, we want to put the focus on books on and around World Book Day – to get books talked about, shared, read and thought about and celebrated in all their forms.

“Books are there to be read not to just sit on school library shelves and encouraging parents to read with their children is a great way to foster the love of books.

“Research carried out by Egmont Publishing and others has shown so clearly the benefits of parents physically reading a book together with children of all ages.

“So this year, World Book Day is encouraging as many grown-ups as possible throughout the UK and Ireland to share a story with their child – or any children and young people in their lives – for at least 10 minutes every day, as this can have a significant impact on their future.

“And we will be doing all we can to encourage parents who visit our shop to spend time reading with their children.

“Over the past few years we have seen an increased use of these tokens, but would love this year to be a record year with many more children in the North Somerset area redeeming their token.”

The Times is also encouraging children to read for pleasure through the Books For Schools campaign which is giving hundreds of primary-aged pupils access to a wider variety of literature.

We are therefore appealing for donations of books and gift vouchers so we can give out 100 books to a primary school each month.

Book donations can be taken into Clevedon Community Bookshop, in Copse Road, or the Portishead Town Council office in Folk Hall, High Street, or alternatively to our office in Waterloo Street, Weston-super-Mare.

Free Bookstart rhymetimes are running in libraries across North Somerset to celebrate World Book Day on March 1. Sessions will be held in Long Asthon Library at 9.30am, in Nailsea Library at 2pm, Portishead at 2.15pm and Yatton at 2.30pm.

Let us know about your World Book Day events by emailing nstimes@archant.co.uk