Not only is it Mother’s Day this month but it’s also World Book Day. Rebecca Pitcairn meets a Tunbridge Wells mum and grandma who has dedicated her professional life to creating books for children...
As a new mum and step-mum to an eight-year-old, I have first-hand experience of the astounding benefits books can have on a child from an early age – reading helps builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination and even improves sleeping patterns.
Yet, according to the National Literacy Trust, reading among children in England is in decline. The trust’s latest Annual Literacy Survey found that fewer than three in ten children and young people aged eight to 18 read daily (the second-lowest level recorded since the study began in 2010) and almost one in five children between the ages of five and eight do not have access to books at home. The 2022 study also revealed that less than 50 per cent of children under the age of two are read to regularly by their parents.
In a bid to encourage parents to introduce reading to children as early as possible, The Book Trust runs a book gifting programme called BookStart Baby, which provides every child aged 0 to 12 months with a pack of carefully-chosen books and resources.
It was receiving this pack when registering the birth of my son, Leo, last year that led me to Penny Worms, the Tunbridge Wells owner of independent publishing company, Mama Makes Books. Penny’s innovative Tummy Time book was one of The Book Trust’s chosen books for 2021/2022 and has been a constant in my almost one-year-old’s daily play routine since he was just a few weeks old.
“The programme is huge, it’s 625,000 books and at one point I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fulfil the order. It was a huge deal at the start of my business and a real baptism of fire,” Penny tells me when we meet at Even Flow, a favourite coffee shop of hers close to her home in St Johns.
Penny created the book, which helps babies fulfil their daily dose of Tummy Time (an activity encouraged by health professionals which involves laying babies on their stomachs to help them strengthen muscles in their neck and shoulders needed for rolling, sitting and crawling), after seeing a gap in the market for early age books.
“There was a lot out there for children from 12 to 18 months-plus but not much for newborns, besides soft playbooks,” the 57-year-old explains. “I knew how important Tummy Time had become but that parents often found it difficult to keep their children happy while doing it. So, I researched what colours and shapes babies begin to see first as their vision develops and created a book based on my findings.
The concertina book, which was developed with the help of 10 local ‘tester’ families, is designed to keep babies’ brains busy while their muscles are hard at work and features a double-sided panorama of images to develop vision, as well as pictures of babies and a mirror so they can look at themselves. It’s proved so popular that Penny has developed a follow up, called Reading Time, which publishes in April.
“I hadn’t fully appreciated the rate of brain development in newborns – in the first 100 days it develops faster than at any other time in your life,” she says. “This second book is an extension of the idea behind the first book but with images of some of the first words children learn to say, such as cat, car, book and teddy.”
For the 30 years prior to launching Mama Makes Books, Penny had been creating children’s books as an editor and writer working for and with publishing companies, such as Orchard Books (now an imprint of Hachette), Kingfisher (now an imprint of PanMacMillan) and now defunct Tunbridge Wells firm Ticktock Media, where she met her partner. Together they have a large blended family of five children (one is Penny’s biological daughter, Mollie, and four grandchildren.
She was inspired to set up her own publishing company in 2019, at the age of 54, following the death of her mother, Judy, who worked as a bookkeeper and volunteer reader at Coxheath Primary School in Maidstone all the way to her 80th birthday.
“She was our rock – a single mum who was always there for us and her grandkids,” remembers Penny, who used her inheritance to fund the business. “I think she would be pretty chuffed to know that I set up Mama Makes Books with her money as children and education were two things she was truly passionate about. And why not start a business in your 50s?! I figured I could have 15 years of working life left so why not “invest in yourself”, be brave and do what you love?”
Describing the business as “a small company with a big heart, ambitions to inspire and educate a new generation, and to be a force for good,” Penny enjoys discovery young talented artists to illustrate her books, most of which she writes herself.
“It’s such a joy opening up a new piece of artwork,” she adds. “You never know what sort of impact it’s going to have.”
Having an impact is something that is integral to Mama Makes Books’ body of work but extends beyond just encouraging children to read more. One of Penny’s latest projects, an educational book for children age five to nine called The Most Important Animal of All, was voted Books for Topics’, a website which recommends books for use in primary school classrooms, best educational book of 2021 for Key Stage 1. The storybook, which came out in paperback in January and is illustrated by award-winning Somerset artist Hannah Bailey, looks at seven keystone species and why they matter to our planet.
“From bees and bats to tigers and sharks, the book helps explain why these animals are important and develops an understanding of ecosystems and the interconnectedness of everything, as well as a positive introduction to the issues of habitat loss, endangered species and climate change for young children,” Penny tells me. “It’s something I’m particularly proud of as it’s been endorsed by the British Ecological Society.”
The publisher’s overriding mission however is to get parents (and grandparents) and children engaged in books so they can share a love of reading together.
“I still have some of the books I used to read to my daughter, Mollie, who’s now 22, when she was young – a favourite was the Mr Gum series by Andy Stanton and illustrated by David Tazzyman. We’d giggle together, lots,” Penny remembers. “And now I get to do the same with my grandchildren, who range in age from four months to seven years. What I love so much about books is that they provide you with that beautiful moment of complete togetherness – you don’t ever forget it.”
mamamakesbooks.com
PENNY’S TOP 3 TIPS FOR PARENTS
- Try to support independent book shops if you can. Sevenoaks Book Shop is one of my favourites and has an excellent children’s selection.
- It doesn’t need to cost money to get your children reading more. Take advantage of schemes that offer free books for kids or enrol your child in the local library. The new Tunbridge Wells library at The Amelia has a fantastic children’s department.
- As another book-related activity, encourage children to create a story book of their own. My seven-year-old grandchild always asks to ‘write a book’ when he’s with me and it’s a great way of getting them to enjoy books and storytelling.
