Reviewed by Penny Munro
I was, or you could say that my daughter was, lucky enough to review the Reading Chest (www.readingchest.co.uk), a book loan service which delivers children’s books for ages approximately 4 to 9 direct to your door.
The website is bright and easy to use. Registration is easy. First you choose the package:- bronze with an initial delivery of 4 books with 2 swaps a month at £9.95 a month, silver with an initial delivery of 4 books with 4 swaps a month at £12.95 a month or gold with an initial delivery of 6 books and unlimited swaps at £15.95 a month. The silver and gold packages are ideal if you have more than one child at different reading levels as you can prepare lists of preferences for each child according to their levels and those books will come together addressed to both children. Payment is by direct debit so it is simple to set up online when registering.
As I registered to the gold package, the first envelope containing 6 books arrived within 3 days. Given that I registered just before Christmas, the service is pretty spectacular. The envelopes used for sending the books were sturdy and, to my daughter’s delight, were addressed to her.
The first envelope arrived with a bright red book bag, a strong bookmark, a reading success chart, stickers to use on the chart, a prepaid book return envelope and the first six books. The books are in immaculate condition so the reading began! The idea is that once the first three have been read, they get sent back whilst you continue with the next three and then by the time you have read those three, the next three will have arrived and so on. Turnover is a matter of 3 -4 days from sending the books back to receiving the new batch.
Overall, I think the business model is super, everything to make your child want to sit down and read. I am an avid believer that developing a love of books at an early age will really show later on and this company does everything it can to assist in this essential development even preparing certificates to download when the child has read twenty books or goes up a reading level. There is plenty of advice on the website on how to gauge the correct reading level and how to help your child with their reading.
The range of books available to choose from is outstanding including popular reading schemes such as the Oxford Reading Tree, Floppy’s Phonics and Treetops (to name but a few) all the way from first reading to approximately 9 (depending of course on the child’s individual ability) and includes factual books, plays and stories. If a child is reading a particular scheme of books at school, you can specifically exclude that scheme from your child’s list so you do not replicate with school. You can even choose whether you would like fiction or non-fictional books to be included. Preferences can be entered at registration or at any time thereafter as you can log in to your account online through the website. The online account details the books you have at home and the ones read previously so it is a good record. The child can even enter their own reviews of books which they have read which I think is a lovely idea. The account can be cancelled at any time and once all the books have been returned, the direct debits will stop so you have complete control.
All in all, I think this is a wonderful service and wish the Reading Chest every success for such a great service. I will definitely register again for the service when my three year old son starts school. I cannot recommend it more highly, especially for working mothers like me who wants nothing more than to encourage their child to read but has very little time to spend hours searching out books suited to their levels in libraries.
Rating: 5/5
For more information visit www.readingchest.co.uk.
