Parrot Street Book Club

General information

Parrot Street is a new business launched by Emily Bright and Sarah Campbell, long-time friends and bookclubbers. Between us we have five children (two boys and three girls) and backgrounds in publishing, events and TV. We love reading, and we love reading with our kids. Above all else, we want to inspire a love of reading in them.

Parrot Street is a subscription book club for kids aged 5 to 11. Every month we will send your child a new book for them to keep. We will also provide an activity pack that includes fun book club-style questions for your child to discuss with their friends and family. There will be games, puzzles, craft projects and more, all inspired by that month’s book. We offer three, six and twelve-month subscriptions in two different categories, for kids aged 5-8 and 8-11. And for every book we send out, we will make a donation to one of the amazing charities working to raise literacy levels in the UK and around the world.

We know that many parents would love their children to read more, and to enjoy it as much as they do, but aren’t sure how to encourage them. In this digital age, with so many things competing for our kids’ time and attention, we risk raising a generation who can read, but choose not to. Studies have shown that reading for pleasure helps our children develop imagination and creativity, along with a whole range of moral, intellectual, emotional and social skills. Perhaps most importantly, reading fiction helps us understand others and our own identities, building both empathy and confidence. Through books we experience what it is like to be a different gender, from a different culture – or just what it is like to be someone other than me. Through books our kids can experience the whole world – or another world entirely.

At Parrot Street we believe that reading is fun when we do it together, a great way to connect with our friends, family and beyond. We are inspired by the idea that reading is a social activity and that our children are never too old for us to read with them or to them. Maybe your child will read their Parrot Street book on their own, or maybe they will read it with a parent or grandparent. Maybe your child will want to start their own Parrot Street Book Club with their friends – all our books and activities are ideal for sharing.

We want to build a community of readers – of kids and grown-ups. As parents and active bookclubbers ourselves, we know that talking about books helps us understand them and what they mean to us. The book club-style questions in our activity packs are designed as a starting point for discussion. There are no rules and no right or wrong answers.

A Parrot Street Book Club subscription will introduce you and your child to books, authors and genres you may never have discovered. There are so many books out there, beyond the classics and the bestsellers, that we think you’ll love. We are careful to choose books that aren’t pitched at any specific gender. We will never send you a book that we wouldn’t read with our own children or encourage them to read for themselves. Our book selections and activity packs are designed to reveal the power of literature and the way it connects to real life – but above all they are a platform for exploring everything that is fun and exciting about fiction.