Hill Head author Eve Wilson's six Explorer reading books cost £12 plus £2.99 postage with code EXPLORER20, tote bag included. Updated November 2026.
Fareham News readers can buy all six books in Bright Start’s Explorer range for £12 plus £2.99 postage and packing, using the code EXPLORER20. The books are written by Eve Wilson, a retired headteacher who lives in Hill Head. The code takes 20% off the £15 brochure price, and the books come in a small tote bag with the Bright Start logo on it.
“I feel so passionately about helping children to read and, even more importantly, to enjoy books and stories,” Eve told us.
What is in the set
The Explorer range is six illustrated stories:
- Mia Saves the Day
- Effie’s Magical Adventure
- Benji Knows Best
- Rome and the Magic Map
- Grandad’s Trip
- That Puppy Must Go!
Each is a 24-page booklet, in a size Bright Start’s leaflet describes as easy for young children to hold. The leaflet says the vocabulary is carefully chosen to support developing readers.
“Although part of the Bright Start scheme, the books are perfect for all young readers or for parents to share,” Eve says.
Why she wrote them
We reported Eve’s story in October. She spent more than 50 years in education and wrote the first Bright Start books for her grandchildren, after her granddaughter Honor began coming home from school in tears, saying she could not read. She now uses AI tools for the illustrations and makes the animated clips herself.
Her view is that a child should finish a book and feel they can read it. She accepts that phonics matters, but questions whether it has to be the starting point for every child.
“Learning to read all seems to have been made so complicated in schools nowadays!” she says.
The evidence she offers is what she has seen herself, with her own grandchildren and their friends. “I am passionate about helping children to read and I know this scheme works,” she says.
She has grandparents in mind for this offer. “I suspect many of your readers are grandparents and I do know from personal experience how worried many are about reading.”
How to order
Order from the Explorer Stage page on the Bright Start website and use the code EXPLORER20.
- Brochure price: £15
- With the code: £12
- Postage and packing: £2.99
- Total to pay: £14.99
Questions go to Bright Start at brightstartathome@gmail.com. Bright Start sells and sends the books, not Fareham News.
Sponsored feature for Bright Start, the reading scheme by Eve Wilson of Hill Head.
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