You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
McFly band member turned children's author Tom Fletcher has launched a children's book club exclusively with WH Smith. The book club titles will get promotion in-store, online and on Fletcher's YouTube channel, which has over 625,000 subscribers.
The new club follows that WH Smith already runs with YouTuber Zoella.
The 10 selected titles chosen for Fletcher's first book club target 7-11 year olds of varying reading abilities - ranging, according to Fletcher, from the "brilliantly bonkers to heart-warmingly wonderful" - offering something for every child to read.
Fletcher has selected Kid Normal by radio personalities Greg James and Chris Smith (Bloomsbury), A Place Called Perfect by Helena Duggan (Usborne), Witch Wars by Sibeal Pounder (Bloomsbury), Clarice Bean, Utterly Me by children's laureate Lauren Child, middle grade novel Beetle Boy by M G Leonard (Chicken House), Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan Children's Books), You’re A Bad Man Mr Gum by Andy Stanton (Egmont), Dog Man by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic), Barry Loser by Jim Smith (Egmont) and My Brother is A Superhero by David Solomons (Nosy Crow).
Each of the 10 titles will feature exclusive Tom Fletcher book club stickers when purchased from WH Smith and be displayed in unique promotional bays.
The book club launches across WH Smith High Street stores and online on Monday (11th September). A launch video published on Sunday (10th September) on Fletcher’s YouTube channel introducing the books and featuring a song written by Fletcher.
Fletcher, Penguin Random House children's author behind The Christmasaurus and The Creakers, commented it could be tricky for children to find the right book and he hoped the recommendations would inspire children, whatever their current engagement with reading.
“I am immensely excited to announce my book club with WH Smith," he said. "There are so many incredible children’s books out there but every child is different and finding the right book is tricky! Get the wrong one and it can turn someone off reading for life and they might end up joining a band or something horrendous like that! So here are ten books that I think are pretty awesome. They range from brilliantly bonkers to heart-warmingly wonderful and I hope there’s a book in this selection that will inspire children whether they are new to reading or fully-fledged bookworms. Happy reading!”
Fletcher will continue to upload weekly review videos for each title to his YouTube channel, while fresh unseen content from the books, short stories, exclusive blog posts and videos from the books' authors will populate the WHSmith Blog.
Frankie Adams, WH Smith books business unit director, added: “We are delighted to launch the new Tom Fletcher Book Club across our stores. By combining the brilliant Tom Fletcher with some of the most fantastic, leading children’s authors we’re confident we will get more kids reading and enjoying books.”