Thames pre-school in Cricklade celebrated World Book Day on Thursday by launching ‘The Little Library, to provide additional access to books for young children.

The ‘Little Library’, which is housed in a re-purposed greenhouse, has already been filled with books donated by staff and parents, although the pre-school would welcome any more donations to fill the shelves.

Free of charge, people are encouraged to ‘take a book, read a book, donate a book’.

The library will be open to all members of the community, whether they attend Thames Pre-school or otherwise, during the pre-schools opening hours of 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday.

Kathryn Reed, committee chair, said: “We know that not all children have easy access to lots of books and wanted to offer something to the local community.

"The Literacy Trust who run World Book Day have stated that one in eight disadvantaged children in the UK say that they don’t have a book of their own.

“We believe that reading, or simply looking at the words and pictures in a book, is an essential first step for children, not only in preparing them for school, but in helping them to develop a wide vocabulary, crucial for speech and language development and building self confidence.

“We are very lucky in Cricklade to have a lovely local library, who are supportive of our initiative.

"We will be providing the opening times details of Cricklade Library within ‘The Little Library’ to encourage parents and children to use our local library.

“We wanted to mark World Book Week this year with a strong focus on sharing books and stories, and we are inviting parents in each day this week to help us share stories with the children."