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A scheme launched in Auckland, giving books to babies, is being extended to other districts across New Zealand and Australia.
The Books for Babes Trust, started by the Rotary Club of Auckland in 1997, gives five free books over 15 months to homes where Plunket nurses feel they are most needed. It is now expanding into Manukau, there are plans for a scheme in Taranaki and it hopes to reach most of the country in the next two years.
A universal version of the scheme, giving a book to every newborn baby, has been adopted in Wellington and Tasmania.
Both versions aim to strengthen the bond between parents and their children and foster children's language skills in the crucial first three years when most of a child's brain development occurs.
"Babies with no books in the house are the ones that don't have the language skills as two-year-olds," said Otara Plunket nurse Patsy Wood.
"We still go into some houses where the children are watching TV all the time and they don't know how to read. We go to places where if you give a book to a 12-month-old they will rip it up.
"They have never had books. They are the ones that won't be able to say 'Mum' or 'Dad' or anything else."
Chapel Downs first-time mother Sharlet Naidoo, whose seven-week-old son Dejaun received his first book from Mrs Wood two weeks ago, said she and her husband had already started reading it to him.
Books for Babes development executive Carol Scholes, who was appointed three months ago to raise funds to expand the scheme, said the free books also helped Plunket nurses get into more homes.
"The families in need often view Plunket nurses as people who are coming in to judge them," she said. "This way they are coming in with a free book and what it does is allow that whole connection to start."
The original five-book scheme distributes about 5500 books a year in Auckland City.
Since June, it has begun distributing one book to every new baby in the flight path of Auckland Airport, including Mangere and Otara, thanks to a $26,000 grant from the Auckland Airport Community Trust.
Families like the Naidoos get a Buzzy Bee book of colours, an information pack about Manukau libraries, and a second book when they bring their baby in to join a local library.
Manukau City Libraries and the City of Manukau Education Trust are backing a Books for Babes bid for funding to extend this initiative to the whole city.
Auckland City Council is using ratepayers' funds for a trial scheme to give a book and a library information pack to 1000 new babies in selected parts of Auckland in the next two months.
Auckland City Libraries lifelong learning manager Greg Morgan said the scheme would continue if it increased library membership in the targeted areas.
Wellington City Council has also used ratepayer funds for the past four years to give a book and a library information pack through Plunket nurses to all 2700 babies born in the capital each year.
Libraries strategic marketing manager Duncan McLachlan said 60 per cent of parents who received the packs used the special membership forms to sign up their babies with the library.
The Wellington scheme had also been adopted in Tasmania.
Literacy day
* Today is International Literacy Day.
* Auckland City libraries are holding free workshops on topics such as blogging and using Trade Me.
* Waitakere Adult Literacy is handing out information at the Henderson Mall.
