Christmas wouldn’t be the same without a good story to settle down with.

From Charles Dickens’ celebrated classic A Christmas Carol to children’s favourite The Snowman, books have helped form our idea of the festive season.

Making sure the borough’s deprived youngsters don’t miss out on this worthy tradition is Newham Bookshop who have donated about 50 books on behalf of generous publishers to the Recorder’s Christmas Toy Appeal.

Store manager Vivian Archer said: “We’ve been helping out with the appeal since its inception. We are all local residents who think that everybody should be able to receive something at Christmas.

“It’s very important that we are part of that and that we are able to donate what we can.”

Visit newhambooks.co.uk and consider donating books to our cause this Christmas.