20th October 2025
We are delighted to share this Voices blog by Caroline Hill-Trevor, Head of Book Selection and Purchasing at BookTrust, as she shares information about their new Peter Rabbit book for the Bookstart Baby pack and the important role that health visitors play in gifting these packs to families.
Caroline Hill-Trevor, Head of Book Selection and Purchasing at BookTrust
The refresh of our Bookstart Baby programme, which sees reading resources and a book gifted to around half a million babies each year, is a keenly awaited date in all our calendars at BookTrust. Over the next year, families will receive a pack from health visitors featuring a brilliant, brand new Peter Rabbit story – Four Happy Bunnies – alongside resources to help them embed reading into their family routines.
Health visitors are key partners for BookTrust, often gifting the Bookstart Baby pack to families in the crucial early weeks after their baby is born. Alongside the pack, health visitors give advice and tips on how to use books, stories and rhymes with babies. They may also use the books during home visits as aids for assessing development, or to support bonding between parent and child. Without the support and expertise of health visitors, the Bookstart Baby programme would not have the impact that it does on so many children and families.
For many families, particularly those on low incomes or who aren’t regular readers, this will be the first book they own for their baby. It can help to embed a habit of shared reading that will lay the foundation for a child’s wellbeing and language development. For that reason, our choice of book is crucial. And that’s why we’ve done things differently this year.
For the first time, the Bookstart Baby title has been created as an exclusive. We identified Peter Rabbit as a great fit for the programme back in 2023. He’s a classic character who has a nostalgia value for both parents and grandparents that can encourage them to begin sharing the story. The TV show is popular with young families too. But it’s Peter’s warmth, playfulness and the clear storytelling which make him perfect for getting people to pick up the book and start sharing it with their children, regardless of whether they already know the character.
That’s why we and Peter Rabbit’s publisher, Puffin, decided to create a bespoke book. It’s really important that we use evidence to guide our choices, so we use a set of design principles in developing our programmes. In this case, we were able to create something appealing to both children and their families, as well as offering our partners great conversation starters and stories to share with the families they work with.
One of the important things about Four Happy Bunnies is that it has a very simple story with a beginning, a middle and an end. That’s helpful for adults who might not be familiar with books. Progressing through a story with a satisfying ending is a real driver for reading and re-reading. The new Peter Rabbit book does this brilliantly.
Rhyming is also vital for parents who may lack confidence in reading aloud. A good baby book needs to scan well, flow easily, and have a strong rhythm. This makes reading aloud enjoyable and natural, while rhythm and repetition draw babies in and supports early language development.
Another crucial part of the design was having pictures showing exactly what’s happening in the text of each page. For example, on one page we have a line about a bunny hopping away and that’s clearly illustrated in the book. Even if parents find reading challenging, they can easily follow the story and stay engaged alongside their child.
The book also has features such as felt flaps which are soft and tactile and is brightly coloured and robust, helping to make reading fun and interactive for young children. They invite playful interaction between parent and child, helping to build positive associations with books and making reading more likely to become part of daily life.
This is also the first time our sister organisation, Scottish Book Trust, will be gifting the same book. That means Four Happy Bunnies will be going to babies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, ensuring that families across the UK have equal access to the magic of shared reading and book ownership.
BookStart Baby Pack
The Bookstart Baby pack is a gift and so it needs to feel special. It’s the first time we’ve collaborated with a publisher in this way and, as the new book is exclusive to BookTrust while it is in the programme, you won’t see it in the bookshops until it stops being our Bookstart Baby book. This, alongside the high-quality feel and the Peter Rabbit name, make this a truly special book.
Puffin has been a brilliant partner to work with, and we anticipate BookTrust doing more books like this in the future. The programme is such a reassuring first step for families, supporting connection, sparking routines, and opening the door to further help where needed. BookTrust works through partners both in terms of our design and book capability and also our crucial work with families. That’s exemplified so brilliantly by health visitors up and down the country who are delivering the Bookstart Baby programme on a daily basis.
