How we select books for the Bookbug P1 Family Bag

Established in 2010, this is our fourteenth year of delivering Bookbug Bags to children across Scotland. We read all eligible titles from a huge range of authors and illustrators, and do our best to ensure that there is enough variety across the three titles for every child to find a book that they love.

Every book chosen for our Bookbug P1 Family Bag has been through a robust review process, with a panel of independent experts from education settings, libraries, and Scottish Book Trust. 

The panel for this year’s books included: 

• Primary 1 teachers
• A children’s librarian and Bookbug Co-ordinator
• Members of the Scottish Government Improving Health and Wellbeing Division
• A Senior Lecturer in Children’s Literature Studies
• A Family Learning Team worker
• A Sensory Storyteller
• A member of the Education Scotland Literacy and English team
• Experts from the Scottish Book Trust team

We invite publishers to submit titles for selection each autumn. Panel members read all titles and are asked to nominate the books they feel are high quality, diverse, engaging and age-appropriate. Following the face-to-face panel, a separate selection of teachers read the books in classrooms across Scotland and share their feedback to help us make the final selection.