A bookshop saved from closure by the community has launched a school sponsorship award.

The Kew Bookshop, in Station Approach, nearly closed earlier this year when the landlord applied to double the size of the retail space, meaning the manager could not afford the rent.

But the bookshop was saved after Richmond Council refused the proposals and the community and politicians signed petitions.

With the summer holidays now over, the bookshop, owned by Isla Dawes, wants state-funded schools in Richmond, Wandsworth, Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith and Fulham to nominate themselves for their achieving through reading sponsorship award.

The award will give the winning school a year’s worth of literacy support between the world book day 2015 and 2016.

Miss Dawes said: "We want it to become an annual thing.

"Schools vary in the quality of the books they have and we want to help the schools that don’t have a dedicated library and the kids who don’t have access to really fantastic school resources."

The winning school will receive a free book for every child on world book day, £200 of quality, new books for their library and two free author or illustrator visits.

They will also receive a free assessment of their library with curriculum-based recommendations and a 20 per cent discount on orders from Kew Bookshop.

Nominations will be accepted until the end of September before a shortlist of six schools is drawn up.

Parents, teachers and communities will then be able to vote online for the school they want to win they sponsorship award and the winner will be announced in early 2015.

For more information, email Anna Zammit on schoolskew@gmail.com, Isla Dawes on isladawes@yahoo.co.uk or call the Kew Bookshop 020 8940 0030.