LITTLE bookworms have been getting their hands on reading packs through a popular town-wide scheme.

It is hoped the previously successful Bookstart programme will again generate more reading from an early age.

Hartlepool youngsters and their parents took advice yesterday from library support workers and were also handed free balloons and stickers.

The event, in the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre, was run by Hartlepool Borough Council's libraries service and funded by the Government. Bookstart aims to involve children in reading at an early age.

Under the scheme, nine-month-old babies are given an introduction-to-books pack, and toddlers aged about 18 months receive a reading pack from their health visitor.

Bookstart was extended last year with a programme under which all three-year-olds in Hartlepool will be given a free Treasure Box at nursery over the next year. They are full of books and items such as pens and bookplates.

Fiona Marshall-Bell, Hartlepool council's Bookstart support worker, said: "Reading is a vital key to a child's development, plus it opens the door to a wonderful world of fun and adventure."