All of us in the publishing house who became readers in childhood did so because we enjoyed it, not because we were made to do it. In fact, we grew up in an era – say around fifty years ago – when parents discouraged ‘story books’ and urged us to concentrate on school work instead. It was perhaps easier then to discover the pleasure of reading as a way to wander imaginatively into another world – there were not many other options vying for our attention. So why is reading still – or even more – important? Because it is surprisingly active and creative, in what it asks of us – the words tell us a story, but the details of the world they conjure up is always filled in by the reader’s own imagination. The act of reading for pleasure is a form of play. No two people read the same book in the same way. A child reader is a reader for life – and it is this insight which gave us the impetus to start publishing books which would interest a child, without an obvious moral thrust on them. We would still stand by our early convictions today, maybe just add something for our current times, which is that reading slows us down. When we are absorbed in a book, it makes us focus for long periods of time – particularly vital in an era which is determined to capture our attention at all costs, and in the process, distract us continually.