Bookworms in the Cradle

When should a child receive his first storybook? 8220;Right at birth,8221; she said firmly. Fifteen years ago, she started a movement in the UK to bring books to the cradle. Thanks to her efforts, today every child gets a free storybook soon after he or she is born. Called Bookstart, the campaign 8212; which had the support of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown 8212; symbolises that every person starts life with a storybook. 8220;They can look at pictures and listen to their parents read. Research shows that babies who are exposed to books early also do better than others in school,8221; said the writer who received the prestigious Eleanor Farjeon award in 2006.nbsp;

Cooling8217;s own library has biographies of famous people who have statues at Madame Tussauds like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Jack the Ripper, and a fact book on Roald Dahl. She likes stories that are fun, though she says that she8217;s fond of Indian writers like Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy.