🎉 THE EMPATHY DAY FESTIVAL LINEUP REVEAL 🎉
We have a FABULOUS lineup of the nation’s favourite authors and illustrators to watch on demand, including: Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Tom Percival, Patrice Lawrence, SF Said, Rob Biddulph, Rachel Bright, Chante Timothy, and Nathanael Lessore. As well as assemblies in Welsh and English featuring graphic novelist Huw Aaron.
PLUS LIVE events with Louie Stowell & Jeffrey Boakye for primaries and Manjeet Mann & Matt Goodfellow for secondaries
Register now:
⭐️ Book your spot for the LIVE events
⭐️ Download your FREE Festival toolkit
⭐️ Discover the AMAZING challenges
🎉 The 2026 #Read for Empathy collection is here!
65 diverse and BRILLIANT books for 3–16+ year-olds perfect to #GOALLIN during the National Year of Reading!
Celebrating 10 years of the collection, the expertly curated selection is representative of our contemporary world, and will spark meaningful conversations. Through these novels, graphics, picture books, poetry collections, non fiction, and early readers – young people can experience, understand and practice empathy, a learnable life skill at the heart of strong relationships and positive wellbeing.
📖Download our free guides, link in bio
🗓️ Dive deeper with our FREE webinar, 12 Feb 4pm
📚 Which is your favourite on the list?
Shop the collection at EmpathyLab's bookshop.org (link in bio) and 10% will go to EmpathyLab and 10% to Booktrust during the whole of February for #ReaditForward (and tag in Bookshop.org)
#GoAllIn #ReadForEmpathy #EmpathyEducation
GET READY! The Empathy Day Festival will run from 4th-11th June and this year’s theme is CONNECTION! Head to to download activity packs and reading recommendations for various age groups and to see the festival programme. GET INVOLVED! @empathylabuk #empathyday #empathydayfestival
📍 Add your event to our interactive map and help build a nationwide community of empathy, stories and connection.
Once you’ve registered for the Festival, fill in the map form and share your event with our growing Festival community!
✨ Private event? Don’t worry, we won’t publish any information publicly!
📚 Don’t miss our special Friday Book Club event on Thursday 11 June! 📚
Join @ed_vere@lisathompsonwrites & @mevanbabakar hosted by @JennyMcLachlan_writer to round off the #EmpathyDayFestival! Creative challenges and fun are guaranteed! Perfect for KS2 & Y7.
🤩 Spaces for the live webinar are limited to the first 500 attendees, so sign up and join us live - link in bio
@Harpercollinsch Book Squad.
⭐️ 3 weeks to go until the Empathy Day Festival! ⭐️
From 4 - 11 June, you can join thousands of children and young people, in schools, families and community spaces across the world as part of the Empathy Day Festival.
We have a FANTASTIC range of FREE activities, LIVE author events and On Demand author and illustrator films for you to enjoy. You can plan activities across the full 7 days, dip in for a few sessions, or celebrate on Empathy Day itself. It’s YOUR Festival YOUR way!
So, what are you waiting for?
Register now and explore everything the Festival has to offer, link in bio!
So excited that I’ve been invited to chair this SPECTACULAR author event with the @empathylabuk team for this years #empathydayfestival in association with @readforgood
Taking place on 4th June with the brilliant @louiestowell and @jeffreykboakye we will be going all in for CONNECTION with thousands of KS2 children across the country.
It’s totally free to register so get yourself over to EmpathyLab now. (No, not later, not in a bit - get it done dude!)
Loki or Kofi wouldn’t wait…why would you? 🙂
#childrensbooks #authors #empathy #reading
How can reading help children build empathy?
To celebrate #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek, Imogen Bond from Empathy Lab shares five practical ways adults can encourage empathy in young readers. From choosing the right books to simple ways of talking about characters, these small shifts can make shared reading even richer.
Read the blog for ideas you can use straight away with the children you support.
🔗/news/5-ways-to-encourage-empathy-in-young-readers
#BookmarkReading #MakeYourStoryCount
🌷 Help grow empathy - we need it more than ever🌷
Take part in the #EmpathyDayFestival and inspire children and young people to grow their empathy skills. We have a FANTASTIC range of FREE activities, LIVE author events and On Demand author and illustrator films for you to enjoy.
Register today and join the Festival fun!
Link in bio
Looking forward to speaking at #SLAConference2026 in Winchester on 5-6June. Always brilliant to be with school librarians and teachers from across the UK - the real beating heart of the National Year of Reading and I know I’ll come away totally inspired by them. I’ll be sharing how school libraries can be the empathy engines of their school. With current evidence from University of Sussex, and brilliant examples from our @empathylabuk Schools Programme 📚
Grab your ticket now @uksla #changingnarratives
And also the perfect opportunity to visit one of my favourite bookshops! @pgwellsbookshop - see you then! ❤️
🤩 Ignite your empathy superpower with this year's Superpower Glasses by @ramzeecreates , author/illustrator of The Cheat Book series. 🤩
A really popular element of the #EmpathyDayFestival campaign, personalise & wear your glasses as a reminder to jump into someone else’s story to see things from their point of view.
✏️ Register now to access your glasses plus fantastic free events & resources - link in bio
@hachettechildrens
