A children’s book gift programme becomes a permanent part of the Finnish national budget

The 2025 draft budget reinforces the learning of basic skills, in particular literacy, which underpins all learning. The Finnish Reading Center’s Book Bag to Every Baby programme, which promotes early reading, will be consolidated with an allocation of €350 000.

In the Book Bag to Every Baby programme, a book bag is given to baby families during a check-up at the child health clinic. The bag contains a storybook for babies and a bedtime story collection for toddlers. The bag also contains an invitation to visit the public library, and a fun growth chart with information on language development at different stages in a child’s life. Since 2019, the programme has made a significant difference to families’ reading habits and raised awareness on the importance of reading.

“The Book Bag to Every Baby programme is important for literacy and family reading habits, as early childhood experiences have a major impact on later reading habits. Reading activities that begin in infancy support children’s language development and strengthen family interaction. Reading together is important for a child’s overall development,” said Sari Multala, Minister of Science and Culture.

The book bag distributed at child health clinics encourages parents to read aloud to their child, which supports their child’s later learning and helps to close the gap in later learning skills.

“Literacy is becoming more and more differentiated, so it is even more important to create equal conditions for reading in all families. A reading gift for a child has proven to be an effective way to increase reading in families with babies. It is great that the government recognises the importance of reading aloud and that we are able to implement the book gift programme in the long term,” says Emmi Jäkkö, Executive Director of the Finnish Reading Center.

63% of families who received the book bag reported that it increased their family’s reading. 27% of families said they started reading after receiving the book bag and 36% of families said they now read more than before. In those families where reading had started thanks to the book bag, reading had also become a regular part of everyday life: up to 77% of these families reported that they now read at least once a day.

Book Bag to Every Baby is the first nationwide book gift programme in Finland to reach the whole age group. The project was funded in 2019-2021 with support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and the project continued afterwards with budget funds granted by the Finnish Parliament. From 2024 onwards, the Reading Gift will be funded from the state budget.

See the results of the programme’s impact study here: luelapselle.fi