Maddie and Sophie Owen from Nutfield Church Primary School have been avid readers for many years. Their interest in reading and love of books resulted in them wondering about how to recommend the books they loved to others.

With the new library at school brimming with excellent new books (thanks to a brilliantly generous PTFA), they decided to email their local Waterstones to ask if they could recommend some books to their customers.

Much to the girls’ parents’ surprise, Waterstones in Redhill replied and said they could not only recommend books, but that the Waterstones staff would also set up a display in the shop with their recommendations. Madeleine and Sophie were asked to recommend ten books each that they would suggest to other children, written a short blurb for each one, and sent these to Waterstones. A few after they did that, they got an email saying their section in Waterstones had been set up!

The girls travelled down on Saturday afternoon to look at the display. There are six excellent recommendations in total (three from each of them). The staff there said they hoped to make the ‘Madeleine and Sophie display’ even bigger when the other books they recommended are back in stock. The display is at the Redhill store based in The Belfry right now!

The school team and I were impressed with their confidence and entrepreneurship too, by seeing where something could be even better they sent an email! They are a credit to their family and to the school. We all hope all the children in the area enjoy reading as much as Madeleine and Sophie do and that everyone visits the store to see the girls’ recommendations. Well done to the team at Waterstones (Redhill) too – what a lovely response to 2 children’s ideas.