England's first national programme designed to provide every child at year 7 with a free book by Christmas 2007 is being adminstered by Booktrust. ‘Booked Up’ is designed to encourage reading for pleasure and to maintain the development of reading levels between Years 6 and 7 as children make the difficult transition from primary to secondary education.

 Booktrust is supported by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) with an allocation of £2.78m which makes the programme free for all participating schools and allows each child to make his or her own choice of book from a selection of 12 titles. A Booktrust panel - including children's book expert professionals from the library sector, booksellers, teachers, journalists, and children's book reviewers - selected the books, which are ideal for reading for pleasure, represent a suitable degree of diversity, use language well and reflect various styles.

http://www.bookedup.org.uk/