LOCAL booksellers The Yellow-Lighted Booksellers, who have branches in Nailsworth and Tetbury, have just over a week to raise just over £1000 to reach their target so they can raise enough money to purchase the award winning 'Lost for Words' book for every school in Gloucestershire.

The bookshop needs to raise a total £5000 by 4.09pm on Wednesday 14 March which will then enable them to buy 275 copies of the book which is intended to help get children outside and into the natural world through art and poetry, using words that are being lost from children's vocabulary such as conker, bramble and wren.

The fundraising has done well so far and has in fact attracted attention in the US and bookseller Hereward Corbett has been delighted with the response so far.

"People across the county and beyond have been donating," he said. "The feedback we have had has been amazing. People are coming into the shops and donating anything from £1 up to £100. Several local businesses have contributed even more.

"They have all been inspired by the book and want to help make sure that children don’t miss out on the relationship with nature that is at risk through spending too much time indoors, on screens, or in the classroom.

There was a similar campaign in Scotland which inspired Yellow-Lighted Booksellers to launch a campaign of their own and Hereward believes the book should be use as part of the curriculum across the country.

"We are going to include sets of notes for teachers that were published by the John Muir Trust (a Scottish based charity that promotes and protects wild places for all). They outline lots of lesson ideas and things that anyone can do to help bring the book alive for children.

"This is a book and a project that helps bring its subject to life and feeds into the primary curriculum in ways no normal textbook ever could," he explained.

"Since we started, similar campaigns have sprung up in other places. When - if - we reach our target, we’ll be looking to work with them to try and get the book into as many schools as possible across the country, but we still need over £1000 to reach our target - or the whole project falls."

If you would like to make a donation, head to www.crowdfunder.co.uk/lost-words-for-gloucestershire.