Scottish Book Trust's Early Years programme Bookbug Sessions are fully inclusive and open to all families, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. The Aims of Bookbug are: To provide free resources to help parents to share books with babies To ensure that all children have free and regular access to a wide range of books which are suitable for their age To promote a love of books and reading from an early age which will last throughout life Find out more about Bookbug at the Scottish Book Trust website How Bookbug works in Orkney Orkney Library & Archive supplies local Health Visitors with Bookbug bags which are given out to babies and children at different stages. The Bookbug Baby Bag is gifted by your health visitor in your baby's first year. The Bookbug Toddler Bag is gifted by your health visitor when your toddler is aged 1 to 2 years. The Bookbug Explorer Bag is given out at nursery when your child is aged 3 years. All P1 children will receive the P1 Family Bag during Book Week Scotland in November each year. The Bookbug Library Challenge is a free and fun way to encourage children from birth to discover and enjoy their local library. The challenge runs in libraries across Scotland and your child will have the chance to collect beautifully illustrated certificates. If you have any queries relating to the Bookbug programme in Orkney please contact the Bookbug Co-ordinator at elaine.tennant@orkney.gov.uk. Bookbug sessions Regular Bookbug Sessions are held during term-time in Deerness, Harray, Kirkwall & Stromness. For the Deerness, Harray, Stromness and Kirkwall baby sessions everybody is welcome to just go along on the day but due to the growing popularity of the Kirkwall TODDLER sessions they have now become a ticketed event in order to help manage the large number of people attending. Tickets are free and can be booked at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk. Simply follow the link and enter BOOKBUG in the search box and ORKNEY in the location to find the next meeting. When booking please make sure to book a space for every adult and child that will be attending.